#21 Bent Persson's Hot Five 2005 at Whitley Bay International Jazz Festival

#21 Bent Persson’s Hot Five and Seven 2005 at Whitley Bay International Jazz Festival – Bent Persson is possibly the best interpreter in the world of the early music of Louis Armstrong. His recording of Louis 1927 “Fifty Hot Choruses For Cornet” for the Swedish Kenneth label remains the definitive version of this near-legendary work. In this special one-off concert he will concentrate on the wonderful years of Armstrong’s recording, from 1925 to 1928 – arguably the most important period of Louis’ artistic development, and certainly the time in which he burst upon the music scene as a meteoric new talent, both from his appearances in Chicago clubs, but more importantly from his landmark series of small band recordings for the Okeh label. This concert accordingly features two bands for the price of one: we start out in impeccable chronological order, with the Hot Five comprising Bent (cornet); Matthias Seuffert (clarinet); Paul Munnery (trombone); Keith Stephen (banjo); and Keith Nichols (piano). After the interval the band miraculously becomes the Hot Seven with Thomas Winterer (clarinet) and the addition of Phil Rutherford (sousaphone) and Nick Ward (drums). Both reedsmen excel in the muscular, blues-based clarinet style of Johnny Dodds, while Munnery brings his own gruff credibility to the roll of Kid Ory and the rhythm men are, of course, all steeped in the authentic sound of the twenties. Programme notes by Mike Durham