Martock Church ...

It is always a pleasure to return to Martock Church to play a concert in such a fine building - it has a marvellous acoustic, a wonderful interior and never fails to provide us with a warm and receptive audience. Since 2002, this picturesque church has hosted some 125 concerts with a total attendance of 18,000, resulting in around £70,000 towards the refurbishment and enhancement of the church - a fantastic tribute to the hard-working team who promote such an ambitious fund-raising concert programme.

It was good to have an opportunity to indulge in the ODJB area of our repertoire. Since the success of our five-piece recreation of the earliest years of jazz recordings last year at the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester, we have had few excuses to give these numbers an airing, but as it is currently 100 years since the Original Dixieland Jass Band visited these shores, it was a clear opportunity to play such gems as the Dixie Jass Band One Step and Livery Stable Blues (from the very first jazz recording in 1917) along with the jaunty Ostrich Walk and the quirkily exotic Soudan.

As if these numbers weren't demanding enough for the band, our Illustrious Leader chose to open the second set with our 'lip-breaking' arrangement of Ellington's Cotton Club Stomp of 1929, followed by another challenge to a brass player's stamina, Joplin's Ragtime Dance. The fact that this was followed by a solo trombone feature indicates the sadistic nature of our Revered Leader's programming ...

Once again, we thoroughly enjoyed contributing to the Church's enterprising concert series and we look forward to future visits! Thanks for inviting us!