Swanage Jazz Festival Round-Up Review:

Brian Blain, London Jazz News

 

Always one of the treats for me when he is booked for the Festival is Keith Nichols' Blue Devils Orchestra, this year presenting early Fletcher Henderson arrangements as well as creaky novelty numbers such as Skeleton in the Closet, an old Armstrong number from an early Bing Crosby film. Keith always has some historical gem up his sleeve and in introducing this old piece he pointed out that the song was banned by the BBC until the title substituted the word Cupboard.

 

Wearing his erudition lightly this is a man who should be touring every jazz conservatoire in the land. Can't leave this area without reference to the amazing blend of statuesque presence and animated projection that is the band's singer Joan Viskant . Why she is not more of a presence on the scene in general I simply do not understand.