December PREVIEW
Trumpeter Chris Hodgkins leads the Salute to Humph at the Marine in Lyme Regis
Remembering Humph
LYME REGIS A LINE-UP of 10 top UK and US jazz musicians, led by trumpeter Chris Hodgkins will give a Salute to Humph, the late, great Humphrey Lyttelton, at the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, on Friday 3rd December. With sound, spoken words and pictures, Salute to Humph celebrates the life and music of the great jazz musician, and matchless chairman of BBC Radio 4’s anarchic I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, on what would have been his 100th birthday. Humph, as he was affectionately known, led the revival of 40s and 50s jazz. He was the first jazzer to have a Top 20 hit with his Bad Penny Blues.
Kora and guitar duo
PORTESHAM A CHANCE encounter between Senegalese kora player Amadou Diagne and French-American guitarist Cory Seznec in the streets of Bath in 2007 led to a new musical adventure in 2021, coming to Portesham village hall on Saturday 11th December. Following rehearsals in Paris and a recording session at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Somerset, Diagne and Seznec created their latest album, Touki - Rights of Passage. Drawing heavily on the traditional music and rhythms of West Africa, the kora dances playfully around banjo and the guitar, the calabash and other percussion add powerful, driving beats, and silky voices entrance. The influences are many, and rather than remaining in any one tradition, the touki—the musical voyage itself—is the destination.
Festive favourites
SOUTH PETHERTON WEST Country favourites the Stanchester Choir and the perennially popular St Agnes Fountain come to the David Hall at South Petherton with Christmas concerts which are 46 The Marshwood Vale Magazine December 2021 Tel. 01308 423031
sure to raise the spirits at the end of this difficult year. The Stanchester Quire, at the hall on Monday 6th December, are a community quire who sing in four-part harmony. They will be performing a selection of old village carols and songs from the South West of England, from the far west of Cornwall back to very near home with some of the unique Odcombe carols. There will be plenty of opportunity for audience participation! All proceeds will go towards the Support The Hall campaign. St Agnes Fountain, as always with two dates because it’s standing room only for this brilliant band, on Friday 10th December and Saturday 11th, bring sparkling musicianship and, humour to their heartfelt renderings of traditional and familiar Christmas tunes. This stellar line-up of founder member Chris Leslie (Fairport Convention) and Chris While and Julie Matthews (Radio 2 Folk Award Winners), has been bringing joy, laughter and a few tears to their performances for the last 20 years. The year at the David Hall ends with a New Year’s Eve Celebration Ceilidh with Crooked Furrow, on Friday 31st December from 8.30pm. Crooked Furrow have been around for many years performing ceilidhs through Devon, Somerset, Dorset and beyond. The band is Derek, who is the caller and also plays bass guitar, banjo and guitar; Judy, playing fiddle and whistle, and Mark, on accordion.
Gypsy, jazz, world and swing
DORCHESTER THERE is Christmas music with a difference in the Dorchester Arts programme for December, beginning on Saturday 4th with those stylish performers, Moscow Drug Club, and their new show, Transcendent Troubadours of Gypsy Latin & Swing. The performance, at 8pm at Dorchester Corn Exchange, ranges from 1930s Berlin Cabaret, Hot Club de France, Nuevo Tango and Gypsy Campfire, with the band’s original material, and songs from some of the great wordsmiths of the past century, including Jacques Brel and Leonard Cohen. Imagine Django Reinhardt and Tom Waits having an after-hours jam with the local gypsy band! On Wednesday 8th, St Mary’s Church is the venue for an evening of medieval carols, by Opus Anglicanum. The concert includes readings performed by BBC Radio’s Zeb Soanes. Mad Dog Mcrea will ramp up the heat at the Corn Exchange on Friday 10th, with their infectious mixture of folk rock, pop, gypsy jazz, bluegrass and ‘shake your ass’ music. The themes range from original songs of adventure, drinking, love and life, to traditional tales of gypsies, fairies, legless pirates and black flies. Swing into the last few days of shopping and cooking with Five Star Swing at the Corn Exchange on Friday 17th.
