REVIEW: The Dime Notes, The Concorde, Eastleigh

THEY had escaped the flash floods of London for the sunny deep south.

And it did not take long for The Dime Notes to be showered with praise from an appreciate Concorde audience.

They were making their debut at The Stoneham Lane club which next year celebrates its 60 th anniversary as an international mecca for jazz.

Next week The Dime Notes, who are building a big reputation on the British Jazz Scene, move into the recording studio to cut their first album.

London’s most stylish vintage jazz band delivered an intoxicating cocktail of early jazz, stomp and swing.

Clarinet player David Horniblow is no stranger to The Concorde, having the rare distinction of playing in all three bands of the legendary 3 B’s of British Jazz – Chris Barber, Kenny Ball and Acker Bilk.

Sharp eyed TV viewers might have also spotted David as the member of the house band of Colliano’s Club in the period costume Mr Selfridge.

He has also played and recorded with household names like Jools Holland and Jamie Cullum.

Horniblow was in his element as The Dime Notes dug back into the blues-drenched sounds of clarinet-driven 1920’s New Orleans jazz, unearthing a repertoire of stomps, blueses, and forgotten gems of the era from musicians such as Johnny Dodds, Jelly Roll Morton and Red Nichols.

Driving force in this sizzling jazz session was American pianist Andrew Oliver who discovered Jelly Roll Morton’s music when he was in his teens.

An American ragtime, bandleader and composer Morton was recognized as a pivotal figure in early jazz.

Oliver studied jazz in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina blew him back home.

Completing The Dime Notes line up was London’s finest rhythm guitarist Dave Kelbie and bassist Tom Wheatley, in demand across many genre boundaries with his huge sound and stylistic versatility.

The Concorde jazz aficionados certainly got their money’s worth from The Dime Notes.

Duncan Eaton