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The London City Big Band |
Here is a big band that is always worth hearing. Since they first formed late in 2011, this young, tight, swinging eighteen-piece band has gone from strength to strength. Their success has to be the result of the skilful leadership of trumpeter Barney Lowe, the high quality of the playing and the great relationship that exists between the musicians. This has to be one of the best big bands playing in the UK at the present time.
The band has drawn its membership from undergraduates and graduates of the London Conservatoires of Music. Their repertoire is the music of the classic big bands with a high standard of arrangements, ensemble playing and solos. The enthusiasm, professionalism and interaction between the musicians is a pleasure to hear.
Here they are playing Charlie Parker's Moose The Mooche
In 2012, trumpeter Barney Lowe, who leads the band, told us about how the project started and developed:
'The idea came about just before Easter 2011. The aim was simply to create a
swinging big band. Originally we started playing 
charts as sung by Frank
Sinatra. However we did our best to try and steer away from some of the
classic tunes and head towards some of the less well known repertoire.
After all, there are many bands playing the music of Sinatra, so we wanted
to try and be as different as we could to the others.'
'Also, we wanted to make things as authentic as possible to that style of music. Again, there are lots of bands that play this music, but we wanted to spend a lot of time rehearsing and making sure that we were playing as one band, rather than a group of eighteen individuals. Not only did we focus heavily on Sinatra charts, but we also rehearsed classic instrumental charts by the big band greats such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton, etc. - again, with the aim of playing in the correct style, and making things as authentic as possible. Since our first gig in October which proved to be a great success, we have also included fantastic charts as sung by Ella Fitzgerald into our repertoire.'
Since then the band has played twice at Ronnie Scott's Club in 2014 and 2016 and has a monthly residency at The Spice Of Life in Soho.
Here is a video of the band back in 2012 at the Guildhall City Of Music and Drama with Harriet Syndercombe-Court singing Paul McCartney's Can't Buy Me Love.
So, did Barney think that the strategy was paying off? 'I'm really excited about the future of the band,' he says. Clearly the members of the band are settling into the character of LCBB. 'People have becoming more familiar with each other, and create a great environment in the process,' says Barney. 'A few of us said to each other that we've never had so much fun playing before - and to me, that is exactly what it is about - playing great music with some great friends and musicians. I'm looking forward to what the future brings.'
The personnel vary from time to time, as does every big band according to the availability of individual musicians, but the pool of talent on which the band can draw is exciting. The line up in 2012 was: 
Trumpets: Barney Lowe*, Chris Snead*, Stuart Fowler**, Miguel Gorodi*
Trombones:
Zeb Tonkin***, Patrick Hayes***, Sion Jones*, Sam Freeman***
Saxophones: Tommy Andrews*, Sam Braysher*, Alec Harper*, Albert Garza*, Caspar Sutton-Jones*
Piano: Dougie Freeman*. Bass: Nic Breakspear*. Guitar: Cameron Skerrow*. Drums: James Nall*.
Vocals: Billy Boothroyd* and Harriet Syndercombe Court*
*Guildhall School of Music and Drama : ** Trinity College of Music : *** Royal Academy of Music
Listen to the band playing that classic jazz favourite Ja-Da backstage at The Spice of Life in Soho in 2014
Reviewing their debut at the famous London jazz club I wrote: 'How can an unrecorded young big band that came together just three years ago sell out two main act shows at Ronnie Scott’s Club over a week before their performance in September? The word had got around from their monthly bookings at the ‘Spice Of Life’ in Soho that this is a tight, talented band of students and graduates from London’s jazz colleges that plays imaginative arrangements of music from the likes of Count Basie and Thad 
Jones and that is about as professional as you can get.
For their debut at Ronnie’s they had nationally acclaimed trombonist Mark Nightingale guesting and it was difficult to know quite who inspired who. Much of the credit for this set up is down to musical director and trumpeter Barney Lowe, not that long out of the Guildhall School himself. A visiting trumpeter from Seattle sitting beside me commented that ‘ ... he is a really good leader, he has the ability to make everyone around him look good ..’
Photograph by Benjamin Amure courtesy of LCBB
Add in the talents of so many UK young bloods and it is a great bake off – saxophonists Tommy Andrews, Alec Harper, Sam Braysher and Nadim Teimoori excelled and the band and the audience did not allow Andrew Linham to end his baritone sax solo on Thad Jones’ Three In One until his breath finally ran out.
Mention should be made of trumpeter Miguel Gorodi’s extended solo on another Thad Jones number, Low Down, and of course Mark Nightingale whose solos were as good as you’d expect. The band benefits from having two charismatic college graduate singers, Billy Boothroyd and Harriet Syndercombe-Court who know how to swing and had the audience and the band well on-side with numbers from the ‘Sinatra At The Sands’ album and the Diane Schuur songbook. Only Mark Nightingale took a solo on one of the vocal numbers, Deedle's Blues, and I should have liked to hear some of the other musicians let loose to solo on songs like Please Be Kind and A Lot Of Living To Do.
By 2016, many of the original members of the London City Big Band are still there although inevitably there are talented newcomers; but the high quality of this band has not gone anywhere. There are moments when a top-shelf big band comes together in a timeless arrangement, the music swells, a musician stands, goes into an inspired extended solo and the audience holds its collective breath. Jazz is like that. You can’t bottle it, you can't freeze it for later; there is the one 
in a million chance that it will be recorded; it is of the moment. Just give thanks that you were there.
Have you noticed that big bands don’t seem to get the publicity or the journal text time that other bands do? That’s not surprising; there are inevitably more smaller bands around, most of the musicians in a big band belong to them or lead their own bands. It is not easy to run a big band and maintain a high standard, the musicians may have bookings with their other bands when you want to arrange rehearsals and gig dates, and if that happens you need to choose deps carefully - the character of the band depends on it.
The term ‘Big Band’ also runs into that age-old jazz conundrum of ‘definition’. King Oliver had a big band, so did Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey; changing the label to ‘orchestra’ takes us in the direction of Duke Ellington and Count Basie but they are still big bands. And what constitutes ‘big’? That’s before we start looking at the arrangements the big bands play, whether they are long-standing classics or contemporary work of today’s new arrangers.
The other thing we should not forget is the melting pot the big bands have stirred where legendary musicians from them have bubbled to the top. Count the stars from Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Duke Ellington and the Count himself. It is still happening that big bands give musicians that grounding and that springboard.
Perhaps it is time that we began to recognise more the many excellent big bands that are out there. One of them is the London City Big Band.
Led by trumpeter Barney Lowe this band of young, talented musicians has now been around for something like five years. Barney brought it together from graduates like himself from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, although there are graduates from other conservatoires too. Their music is varied; there is a strong focus on timeless arrangements by Count Basie, Bill Holman and others but you will also hear arrangements by members of the band.
Barney Lowe
In 2016, the band members are:
Trumpets: Barney Lowe, Chris Snead, Stuart Fowler, Miguel Gorodi
Trombones: Patrick Hayes, Sion Jones, Sam Freeman - then usually swapping with Ed Parr and Owen Dawson
Saxes: Tommy Andrews, Sam Braysher, Max Johnson (Swapping with George Millard, Riley Stone-Lonergan, Albert Garza),Andrew Linham
Rhythm: Dougie Freeman (piano), David Ingamells (drums), Nic Breakspear (bass)
Voice: Billy Boothroyd, Harriet Syndercombe-Court
September 2016 saw a second appearance of the London City Big Band at Ronnie Scott’s club. The first set was a new departure for the band featuring numbers arranged by Shorty Rogers from his album The Wizard of Oz and Other Harold ArlenSongs. For me, the highlight was Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead. After an ensemble introduction, trumpeter Miguel Gorodi stood up and put down the pace, taken up by a fine piano solo from Dougie Freeman and then a formidable, extended baritone sax solo from Andrew Linham. Andrew Linham is an inspired musician and here was one of those moments where the audience held its breath and exploded in applause afterwards.
Andrew Linham
The second set (the band had the evening’s main performance to themselves) was more varied, but still as tight, and here were opportunities to set free solos from musicians. I was particularly impressed by reeds player Tommy Andrews and trumpeter Miguel Gorodi on I Remember You; saxophonist George Millard on Zoot (Bill Holman’s tribute to Zoot Sims); Tommy Andrews again on Stella By Starlight and trombonist Owen Dawson on Carl - Bill Holman's tune dedicated to Carl Fontana.
Tommy Andrews
When encores are called for they are often a complementary bookend, some people will already be leaving. They should have stayed. The band played Limelight and with Ed Parr featured on trombone, pianist Dougie Freeman decided on a solo tour-de-force that drummer David Ingamells couldn’t resist. One of those moments.
David Ingamells
I know. You probably weren’t there, so these may just be words. I offer them so that you might remember the names of young musicians that you should listen out for; to encourage you to visit the unmissable London City Big Band who you can hear up close and personal at the Spice Of Life in London's Soho on the last Wednesday of the month, and to tempt you to dip back into the world of big bands if you have not been there for a while.
Listen to the original version of If I Only Had A Brain by Shorty Rogers and his Giants from the album The Wizard of Oz and Other Harold Arlen Songs.
If, like others, you couldn’t get a ticket for Ronnie’s, catch the band at one of their Spice Of Life gigs.
The band has a residency downstairs in the Backstage Bar at the Spice of Life Jazz Club at 6 Moor Street, Soho, London W1D 5NA (Tel: 07870 915682) overlooking Cambridge Circus with doors opening at 7.30 pm on the last Wednesday in the month (Tickets £10 / £8).
Click here for the London City Big Band website and go to their 'Audio' page to listen to some of their music.
Click here to follow the band on Faceook.
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© Sandy Brown Jazz 2012 - 2016
