All of me - Click Here to Listen
This is the tune with which the band has started nearly every gig: we like it! It’s a good warm-up tune, medium tempo and with a vocal so that we can even check the sound levels. So when we played our final performance at Wolverhampton Grammar School in July 2008 this just had to be the first number.
Honeysuckle Rose - Click Here to Listen
Another favourite of ours, this Fats Waller number just rocks. Again recorded at the farewell WGS gig in July 2008 you can probably hear even over the crowd noise that it works well for the band.
Savoy Blues - Click Here to Listen
One of the old jazz tunes played by every traditional jazz band. But remember how Armstrong, with the Hot Five in 1927, just took off and made it his own? We like to think that the CSRW does the same. Nigel’s trombone glissando leads into what should be the final chorus – but the band lifts off into a further sequence and goes its own way. That’s the kind of thing the boys do best.
Dr Jazz - Click Here to Listen
The band learned this from the famous Jelly Roll Morton recording (though they never mastered Morton’s fancy introduction!) – but it takes a very different approach. Bernard sings and the guys give it their all: the number just cooks and builds. Smoothly abrasive; that’s how CSRW branded itself in its early days.
Mood Indigo - Click Here to Listen
It’s the end of the evening. The band’s been blowing like crazy and the crowd’s roaring for more. What’s the perfect encore? Resist the temptation to go hotter still (impossible!). Think cool instead. The Duke’s amazing score adapts beautifully to the small-band context: Nigel plays above Bern in the trio, with Mike’s sultry soprano sax on top. It doesn’t come much cooler than this.