By: Roy Stevens - Mon, Dec 19, 2011

It has become a tradition at Stratford Jazz that the Christmas Special gig should feature a prominent local band. That being said the band should also be able to hold its own with any similar band on the national circuit. On Sunday evening at Stratford Jazz at The Chapel, No.1, Shakespeare Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, the Beebe quintet showed that it is more than capable of fulfilling the requirements when it when it delivered a programme of swinging, straight-ahead jazz that ensured that punters went home in a buoyant spirit for Christmas.

How could it be otherwise with such a stellar cast of musicians? Led by Chris Aldridge on reeds, a superbly fluent sax player who on previous visits has thought nothing of playing two saxophones at the same time and, coming in as a replacement on trumpet for Bryan Corbett, the versatile Simon Beddau better known for his work with bands as diverse as IDST and the Rabbit Project . These two front-line musicians combined extremely well despite their very different styles. Chris needs no warming up he bursts into his creative solo work with such infectious enthusiasm that has the audience with him from the first note whereas Simon tends to quietly explore in the early stages of his solos before launching into a torrent of exhilarating invention.

The front-liners were excellently supported by Levi French on keys who appears to have put his Mcfly days behind him, he proved once more that he is up there with the best seamlessly cruising from Jimmy Smith organ mode to some rapturous Bill Evans moments. Roger Innis on bass guitar and Neil Bullock on drums completed this outstanding quintet, two multi-talented musicians who are equally at home in any genre whether it be jazz, blues, funk, soul, etc. Over the years I have watched them, I have never seen them fazed by any situation.

From the high octane first number, Coltrane’s Impressions, right up to the rousing encore of Thelonious Monk’s, Well, You Needn’t, this band delivered in spades with a well-mixed programme of originals from Chris Aldridge with some classic jazz standards. Christmas certainly came early to the Stratford Jazz audience. For more info and the future programme, please visit www.stratfordjazz.org.uk

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