I live in South West England, amidst the glorious rolling green hills of the Cotswolds—or, more accurately, the scruffier end of a medium-sized town in the shadow of the rolling green hills of the Cotswolds. It’s a corner of the world famous for its ancient woodlands, chocolate-box villages, industrial heritage and prestigious private schools, but not so much for its jazz. So I was pretty excited the other day to discover a swinging outfit from just down the road in Bristol.
Trudgeon’s Trad Jazz Troubadours is a multigenerational assemblage of musicians from around the region. They’ve been together just a few years, but wield decades of experience between them: The eponymous [Joseph] Trudgeon plays bass in the Chris Barber Big Band. (Barber was one third of titanic trad triumvirate Barber, Ball, and Bilk—check them out in their heyday, here.) Drummer Paul Archibald is a lecturer in music at Cardiff University, a regular on the UK festival circuit and a member of Rob Heron’s Teapad Orchestra—undoubtedly the best and most successful Americana band out of North East England.
Joining these young bucks are some old hands: experienced gigging musicians, recording artists and sidemen whose online profiles don’t measure up to their obvious chops, else I’d write more about them. Together, in this debut full-length record, they’ve recorded ten tracks dating from the noughties to the forties featuring classics by King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Kid Ory—plus the more recent “Evolutionary Blues”, by prolific Brit composer Andy Leggett.
It’s a playlist packed with variety, stuffed with swinging swagger and supreme soloing. Oliver’s “Doctor Jazz” is the fastest track on the disc, kicking things off with great gusto (and a particularly nice trombone passage). Close behind is “Tattooed Lady / Indiana,” which turns Skeets McDonald’s comic country number into a second-line extravaganza. On the flipside, “Savoy Blues” and “Apex Blues” bring the tempo right down—and “Pontchatrain” (the Louisiana lake misspelled, as it was on Morton’s Victor side) is almost funereal, its languid solos evoking sunset on the bayou.
The outfit’s “St James Infirmary Blues” is a particularly interesting one: a mix of harmonized brass section, solo piano and sparsely-accompanied sung verses. Some are single time, others are half time. More than many other versions I’ve heard, it has the feel of a scratch band improvising over an old standard between pints of ale—which is more or less what the recording is.
“My Bonny” combines the best of both quick and slow, beginning as a sweet lullaby before breaking out into a swinging rendition of the traditional tune. It sports some thrilling trilling from Hugh Roberts’ clarinet, and a nice Kenny Ball-esque vocal from Trudgeon. Elsewhere, the singer sports a cod American accent—a slight disappointment to me as one of the endearing things about British trad, in my opinion, is that its sixties stars sang in their own accents. One such legend, Digby Fairweather, told me last year that UK jazz is essentially “American jazz with a British accent.” Barber, Ball, and Bilk’s singing voices are iconic, so it seems a shame we don’t get to hear more of the authentic Trudgeon.
The Troubadours have gone for that one-mic, one-take sound, recording this record live at—where else—the pub. It lends a monophonic, 78-like authenticity to the project, but I can’t honestly say it enhances listening: even with the bass turned up on my equalizer, it sounds like a band playing at the other end of a long room (and there’s a little peaking evident). It’s not exactly an immersive experience, but this doesn’t detract hugely. After all, I’d rather be stuck at the back of the room than absent.
The Troubadour’s first full-length record is available as a digital download now, via their Bandcamp page, and is absolutely worth the tenner they want for it. Or chuck them another quid and get it on CD.
Trudgeon’s Trad Jazz Troubadours
ttjt.bandcamp.com
