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There's Trad Jazz here every Sunday at the Blue Bell Inn, Halkyn, with the mellow sounds of Mad Ed's Hot Five who bring a great mix of humour with superb musicianship. Don't miss them this week as they entertain both us and themselves with such verve and vigour that you'll get withdrawal symptoms if you miss them!
Mad Ed's hot Five are in full force most weeks with double bassist Mad Ed Lloyd-Hughes leading a stunning line-up of Roy Django Gregory (Modjango) on guitar & banjo, Stan Bananas Williams ( YouTube) on trumpet & flugelhorn, Tom the Doc Rippeth on trombone & wagnerian horns and Carol Horle keeping a sense of decorum with her georgous voice and clarinet. You'll see from the pictures that they are ably supported by a range of fantastic subs who give us a lovely and varing mix of sounds.
All are welcome to enjoy the entertainment & our range of cask ales & real ciders and we hope you have fun joining in with Mad Ed's happy band of jazzers. Don't forget to look out for our new Jazz Links pages as they're growing all the time! We've joined myspace.com have you?
Trying to figure out why his Double Bass had started rattling Ed discovered his missing hacks pen which fell out of that famous instrument with the multi-directional scroll. Ed's trusty friend was being used to hoist himself up to the bar from his usual ground-breaking prone position after having imbibed one too many of those renowned Blue Bell Bitters. Suddenly, a fantastic idea came into Eds head, he discarded it immediately and wrote this instead, check it out at Fred Burnetts Jazz North West web site.
Encouraged, sometimes goaded, by a gang of reckless patrons, the Hot Five churn out an un-amplified repertoire that allows the regulars to exchange scathing remarks about the band's dress sense and absurd facial expressions, whilst downing pints of Blue Bell Bitter, an activity encouraged with vigour by the band.
"Our musical style is greatly influenced by the Dewhurst tradition" claims
bass player Ed
Lloyd-Hughes; "We takes all the well loved traditional jazz tunes and we butchers 'em."
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY
" Keep my name out of this rubbish " Stan Williams [ trumpet and flugel ]
" On no account mention my name " Carol Horle [ clarinet ]
" Is this some kind of joke ? " Roy Gregory [ banjo & guitar ]
" I deny everything including this denial " Tom Rippeth [ trombone and Valkyriehorn ]
" Who ? " [ The rest of the Lloyd-Hughes family ]
" If I hear this lot again I shall retire a broken man " [ Humphrey Lyttelton.]
" A bunch of demented cacophoniacs, slightly better than rap music..... maybe. "
[ KERRANG magazine ]
" Do they ever bother to tune their instruments ? " [ A musician ]
" On the spot fines will stop this kind of thing " [ North Wales Police ]
" How do they drink so much and still stay upright ? " [ Dialysis monthly ]
" Bloody great ! " [ John Prescott ]
The Players
Roy Gregory needs little introduction to North Western
jazz fans as a ferociously driving one man rhythm section playing Djangoesque
guitar and searing banjo, he often sets fire to the rafters......this man is
seriously hot. Did I mention his limitless song repertoire?
He knows 'em all.
Stan Williams has earned himself a reputation as a fine
trumpet player and is much in demand. Fortunately he lives 3 miles away from
the Blue Bell so we can get him cheap most weeks. He has a blue trumpet, we
have no idea why.
Stan can sing too, but quite frankly, and strictly
between ourselves, he never seems to know the words, keeps doing that skibbly
skoobly oobly dah wah wah stuff. Man's a fool.
Dr Tom
Rippeth, a native of Royton but now resident but a cycle ride away from the
Blue Bell is a talented Tynesider playing trombone, Wagnerian horn, bass and
piano and is mostly a sensible influence within the band. His proper job is
calculating how hot and horrible global warming is going to get. What a little
ray of sunshine he is.
Carole Horle, our splendid clarinetist has revealed
herself as a dashed fine singer, delivering songs with enough passion and
tenderness to bring forth a flood of tears from a glass eye. Carol lives on Anglesey, works reluctantly and produces honey with
verve and joy. Make your own jokes about that one.
Last, and quite properly so, is Ed Lloyd-Hughes an
alleged bass player. First played in a trad band when he was young lissome and
lovely. Time has clearly taken a horrible toll on the feller. He was recently
turfed out of a gurning competition for going too far, remarks about an
Orang-utan's buttocks were heard. He has the loudest voice in Wales, but not
the sweetest .........
Other people daft enough to guest with the Hot 5 include
glamour shirtist and trumpeter Tom Jones, the surprisingly lovely Al Tunstall
on piano and Morris Jones on trombone who deps for Dr Rippeth when he has to
tussle with extra hard sums.
The Birthday bash went well, were you there? If you weren't you missed the special treat of Jamie Brownfield
guesting on Trumpet! Fantastic sound and we're sure this 16 year old
has a great future ahead of him. We hope to get a picture up here
before too long!
Other stuff
Is it a Plane?
NO!
It's Mad Ed the Elf - training!
See Ed the Elf (without his Double Bass) as one of Santas helpers on the Welsh Highland Railway next Christmas.
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hot stuff
Written by Madbass on 2007-08-06 20:36:55
12th of August will feature the
Hot 5 line-up of that horrid bassist, the tootsome trumpitist Stan Williams,
Mister RRRRRRoy 'Banjah & Gattarhg' Grrregory, the surprisingly lovely Al Tunstall Pianiste, depping for Doctor Rippeth and the return of OUR OWN, OUR VERY OWN precious and fragrant Carole Horne, adored vocaleeste and Clarinetuse, fresh from groanmare duties in the Irish Republic. S'goin to be jumpin...........5 thru 7-30 Sundeeee, drink n jive, B there! |
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