Walking through the town before the set, I listened to two Basildon artists: Ralph Dartford whose latest collection of poetry House Anthems has been set to music by Gary Clark. You might find some jazz vibes in his rather plangent sketches…(link below) In the poem Act! Dartford quotes playwright Arnold Wesker whose 40th anniversary play for Basildon bemoaned that there were no artists there, though conceded “Oh yes, one or two, there’s always one or two”.
Always difficult to write about Basildon, the weight of history, stereotyping and economic depression forever pressing down. But for me, it’s a place permanently jazz-connected. It’s where I learnt about the British scene from seeing The Westbrook Brass Band, Alan Skidmore, Abdullah Ibrahim and Loose Tubes often at Basildon’s Towngate Theatre. It was originally a 60s municipal pre-fab, transformed into a glorious, intimate Georgian style theatre, plus studio & modernist foyers. It’s had a chequered history since those heady days of adventurous programming in the 70s & 80, but the venue seems to be on an even keel now and is offering artist development schemes & scratch nights alongside its mainstream offer. Maybe they’ll even revive the 25-piece Scratch Orchestra that flourished there briefly, an open workshop, all-ability band whose framework was based on the Search & Reflect teachings of John Stevens…?
Meanwhile, the theatre has just instituted a Jazz Cafe, a bar-based lunchtime performance slot and first off was a trio led by John Seeley, Dartington graduate, locally-based clarinet & sax teacher, workshop leader and performer. Superbly supported by Humph veteran Ted Beament on keys and Mark Rich on bass, they gave us a couple of hours of perfectly-pitched standards. Seeley’s delivery of well-known themes on alto and clarinet was always measured, with subtle flourishes and emphases showing his command of the songbook material. Opening the set on alto with a blues (in the closet), a couple of songbook tunes and a (recado) bossa, he returned to his first instrument for “the first ones you learn if you’re going to do jazz” and gave us Autumn Leaves and Georgia where his signature trills and a superb outro solo on the latter actually caused the casual users of the bar to stop eating and talking. Other standouts included I’ll Close My Eyes and Summertime which really took off, a highlight of the second set. Beament’s work is probably more well-known to UK Jazz readers but his scope and comping experience only ever complemented Seeley, while Rich’s bass subtly underpinned both throughout.
A thoroughly fine set, and looking forward to more from this project. And Basildon’s artists, home-grown and visiting.