Andy Panayi's Big Band: 'Greek Gods Suite'
This was a enjoyably rumbustious set, in which some terrific music was introduced by Alan Barnes in his unique sardonic style. There’s a real warm relationship between Alan and the Scarborough audience, and his jokes and gently biting asides produce much mirth.
The basic set-up was that Alan introduced a number written by Andy Panayi to represent individual Greek gods. So we got a witty pen portrait of the god, a comically rude comment about the band members who had the role of personifying the god in music (if gods can be personified) and some sterling arrangements of real flair performance by a great band of soloists.
For me this is perfect festival music: great entertainment value, a band of well-respected musicians, and high quality accessible music. It would be hard for anyone not to be converted to jazz, and equally difficult for a jazz fan not to be bold over by the full exuberance of it all.
Tim Wall
