Bags of Vibes

I had my first visit to the Hunter Club of the year last night. Something a bit different - a concert featuring the vibraphone as the lead instrument.

This is how it was described in the publicity beforehand.

Roger's website home page says...

"in the last 2 years I’ve done a few gigs as a ‘Homage to the Vibraphone in Jazz’ where I talk about the history of the vibraphone (it’s about 100 years old), the mecahnics of the instrument (as I regularly get asked)  & play tunes associated with the great vibists in jazz – from Lionel Hampton to Gary Burton & touching Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson & Cal Tjader in between. There have been many other great vibists of course but in the limited time available these are the ones whose repertoire I concentrate on." ...and that's what we got last night.

The usual house band of Chris, George and Owen did a great accompanying job as usual as Roger gave us the story of the history of the vibraphone, its most famous players and his own career. He says he is the only person in the UK to make a living entirely from playing the vibraphone.

We were treated to two great sets of classic vibe compositions, several of which I recognised. I had a front-row seat so had an excellent view of the instrument and Roger's playing. I was surprised by the amount the keyboard wobbled from side to side as it was played, but it didn't seem to affect Roger's playing.

Back in the 1980s he played with the group Fairground Attraction until the broke up in 1989, but was pleased to tell us they have a reunion tour to Japan later this year and he has been invited to go along and play with them again.

Here are a couple of my photos.

The stage is set.

At the start of the concert they had trouble with the front lights so switched them off. I could still see pretty well, though.

They fixed the lighting for the second half, though.

In one piece, Cal Tjader's Blue Curacao, George got to play the bongos.

A great evening's entertainment. Thank-you Roger, Chris, George and Owen. You can read about some of the players Roger featured here.