A number of jazz concerts aired in the U.K. on BBC Radio in the early 1960s while the “trad boom” was underway and rock and roll was rising over the horizon. Many of these have been issued in three volumes by Upbeat Recordings (URCD164, URCD169, URCD230 [formerly URCD166]), under the same title as that of the BBC program: At the Jazz Band Ball. The performances on this volume were given by several bands, all of whom were well-known and popular.
First up is the Monty Sunshine Jazz Band. Sunshine left the Chris Barber Jazz Band, of which he was a founding member, in 1960 and formed his own band, using Barber’s as a template—six members, no piano. While Sunshine’s band was very popular on the traditional jazz circuit, Sunshine never again achieved the kind of adulation he got for his version of “Petite Fleur” that he recorded with a quartet from the Chris Barber band in 1956. The band kicks things off with a rousing “Down Home Rag,” playing ensemble much of the way through apart from a solo from Sunshine and one from Stewart, the interplay between the instruments in the ensemble riveting and the whole swinging like mad right through the dynamics of the closing chorus.
Following that is a complete change of pace, with Sunshine heading a trio of himself, bass, and banjo, playing a slow blues titled “Deep Bayou Blues,” attributed to George Lewis and Lawrence Marrero
