Nigel Price - Naughty but Nice

Nigel Price -

Nigel Price's reputation preceded him, so I arrived at The Bloomsbury (14/02/2013) last Thursday with a bag full of comic material. I'm not just talking about his comedy posts on Facebook but also his family's resemblance to a Beano cartoon-strip . Over the past year we've been treated to some excellent shenanigans from his son, especially his letters home from school. These would have been funny enough even without them been tampered en route and littered with classic adolescent humour.
 Like son, like father in many cases too, because Nigel cannot resist a prank or two. My favourite was the note Nigel left on a badly parked BMW in a multi-storey car park which read (from memory)
'Well done...
I have posted a picture of this on
WWW.YOUPARKLIKEAC*NT.COM'.

His demeanour in real life doesn't dispel the vision of him as a larrikin either. As I walked in he was perched on his stool with guitar in hand, his feet barely touched the floor. But this is where humorous anecdotes end.
He was the model professional and quite simply brilliant.


Bob Martin

The evening was a curious one, very much a night of two halves. In the first set Bob Martin (alto), who is the epitome of west-coast cool, was almost too hip to function. Very much in the finger-clicking style of Peter King, he remained unphased by the packed audience in front of him. He never raised his eyes and continually checked his watch, and we watched and worried that he is ailing in some way. If that is the case then his revival in the second set was impressive.
It could be argued that the interjection of Kelvin Christiane and his Baritone sax injected a pump of energy and fluidity into his fellow saxophonist.

Bob Martin although distant with the audience showed his appreciation for some of his fellow musicians. His Errol Garner style yips and yelps accompanied the man on his left, Pete Whittaker on keys. As you know I have worked closely with Whittaker's stunt double Bill Mudge, so it was a real pleasure to experience a man that rivals Bill's skill on the organ.

Pete Whittaker

I didn't have a good view for drawing  Pete Whittaker but was able to pay special attention to his style of playing. As the whole quintet came to life with a rendition of 'Old Folks', Whittaker's left hand resembled a desert lizard on hot sand with digits alternating, no two fingers touched the keys at any one time. His right hand resembled a reptile too, definitely a cobra, it hovered for a beat of the heart before striking the keys at lightning speed, and then recoiled.

The style of Matt Home on drums was all wrists too.
He must possess real power in them because his upper body hardly moves, even when he is in full swing. They snapped and crackled through out the evening.

Matt Home - drums

Even though the night started out as a puzzle, and took time to warm up it ended in good heart. The future looks good too for the Twickenham Jazz Club.
I spent the last few late-night minutes at The Bloomsbury with 'The Dudes' who have been working on the clubs new website - www.twickenhamjazzclub.co.uk.



'Dude' Andy

We talked about the next TJC night which I'll miss unfortunately (21/03/2013: Willie Garnett and Enrico Tomasso Quartet) and the one after ,which I'll be sketching at, (25/04/2013: Georgia Mancio) and got a ringing endorsement from hot-blooded 'Dude' Andy.