As the founder member of jump jivers The Chevalier Brothers, leader of Acid Jazz legends The Beaujolais Band and most recently with his own Quintet, there’s not many that know more about the quintessential jazz instrument that Mr. Beaujolais had made his own, the vibraphone.

This has made him a much in demand session musician. You’ll recall that he was a star performer on that other legend of the jazz dance, Paul Murphy’s The Trip, Big Bang’s Way In Jazz and on ‘Budapest Chachacha’ and his credits go back as far as 4 Hero’s classic Two Pages album. He also teaches the vibraphone at Trinity College of Music in London. Not bad for somebody self-taught, I think you’ll agree. He was telling me in the break that after a spell as a failed rock drummer, inspired by Bobby Hutcherson’s Highway One [1978], he went and bought a vibraphone for £200. He ended up teaching himself as when he was looking for a teacher, nobody was interested in his plight.

It’s a good job he persevered, check the new album Blue Reflections with his own Quintet. Tonight he was backed by Johnnie Scott’s House Band, Boplicity. As the great man was in town on his way back from visiting his step-mum in Weymouth, I feared that this gig might be a little second best. I need have feared not, ALL performers were on top form and just as satisfying as the CD version.

Backed by Simon Mellish (drums), Pete Maxfield (bass) and on keyboard, Guy Gardiner, they played some excellent standards of the jazz dance floor, like ‘Opus de Funk’ (Horace Silver), Joe Henderson’s ‘Black Narcissus’ (see Milestone Profiles and after a discussion, Duke Ellington’s ever classic ‘Caravan’.

Another fan of the much underrated Grant Green, they played ‘Green Jeans’, which you’ll find on the Quintet’s album, Blue Reflections (shame they didn’t know ‘Sookie, Sookie’).

Needless to say, I had a great time and I hope the word spreads of this monthly jazz night as it should be better attended. Let’s see if the next gig with Mornington Lockhart can be as well attended as the Fatback Band was last year.

Links:
www.rogerbeaujolais.com
www.thomastripplive.com
Jazzwise February 2008 Issue 116 www.jazzwise.com p6 “New Album from vibes player Roger Beaujolais”
www.myspace.com/bobbyhutcherson