Back

A brief history...

In 1995, saxophonist Andy Williamson was asked by Simon Selmon of the London Swing Dance Society to put together a special band for a Lindy Hop festival in London. At the time, Andy was playing with The Honkin' Hep Cats. After getting Ned Bennett on board as Musical Director, the Big Buzzard Boogie Band emerged. The regular 11 piece line up features a front line of three saxes, three brass and a vocalist, with piano, bass drums and guitar bringing up the rear. This format has inspired Ned Bennett to create some great arrangements and original compositions, which because of his particular musical skill, often sound like a much larger band. The repertoire has expanded from the original jive and big band swing standards to encompass a wide range of musical styles. A normal set includes these, plus soul, funk, blues and latin numbers.

Several great singers have performed with the band over the years. For the first few years, duties were shared between Naomi Greenberg and Stacey Kent. Regular guitarist Pete Kershaw (another ex Hep Cat) also often singssteps up to the mic for a few songs. Our regular singer at the moment is the Scot, Jonathan Cairney (1991 winner of the Perrier Young Jazz Singer award).

Some of the Big Buzzard Boogie Band's memorable performances

For 3 years running (1998-2000) the band headlined at The Soho Ball at the Cafe Royal, Piccadilly Circus where they also backed Suggs in a set of old Madness songs. In May 2000, one guest offered to donate £1000 to charity if the band, and Suggs would perform his hit duet with Ian Dury "Drop Dead Fred" as a tribute to Ian, who had died a few weeks earlier. With only a couple hours notice, they bought a CD of the song at Tower Records across the road, and Ned whipped up a quick arrangement. Andy was honoured to take Ian Dury's place.

In 1999 and 2000, the band appeared at the Famous Spiegeltent at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (see reviews below). Some of the 1999 performances were recorded, and under the expert ears of Sound Engineer Jim France, some stunning live recordings are available here for free download as MP3 files.

On 1st June, 2002, the Big Buzzard Boogie Band performed at Buckingham Palace as part of the "Prom at the Palace" in celebration of the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

The band performs regularly at the Royal Festival Hall Foyer in London's South Bank Centre. Their performance there on 3 November 2002 attracted a record audience of around 1000 people.

Other incarnations

The band can shrink to form the Big Buzzard Baby Band which might feature 4-7 musicians. In this guise it performs regularly at London's 100 Club and was on hand for the opening celebrations of the new Sadler's Wells Theatre as well as countless smaller events, both public and private around the UK.

It has also had occasion to grow to a full sized jazz orchestra for performances of Duke Ellington's Sacred Concert with the Choir of Clifton Cathedral. The first of these opened Bristol's Spiritual Sounds festival in 1999. This performance was recorded and the opening and closing movements are available here as MP3 files. This has become a regular part of the Big Buzzard repertoire, and was featured for three performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, during the band's visit to the Famous Spiegeltent in August 2001 (see review below).

In November 2001, after a late night gig at Moles Club in Bath, the band were up early on Sunday morning for a live broadcast on BBC Radio 4 of Duke Ellington's Sacred Concert as part of the regular Sunday Morning Service from Clifton Cathedral in Bristol. The controller of Radio 4 was heard to have been well pleased with the results.

On 10 April 2002, the Big Buzzard Big Band joined again with Clifton Cathedral Choir for BBC Radio 3's Choral Evening Prayer, broadcast live from Clifton Cathedral in Bristol. The hour-long broadast featured music from Duke Ellington's Sacred Concert, and the world premiere of a new setting of the Magnificat for choir and jazz ensemble by Ned Bennett. You can download or stream an MP3 version of this here, exactly as broadcast (it's a 9.8Mb file, so you'll need a fast connection, or plenty of time!). Some of Radio 3's more conservative listeners were horrified that this bastion of British classical music broadcasting had been infiltrated by jazz, and wrote to the BBC to say so in very strong terms! However the Cathedral and the BBC both received many letters and calls from people who found the programme wonderful.

Reviews:

For some reason, not many reviewers have been moved to commit their opinions to print over the years. The few reviews we do know about are shown below. If you know of any others (complimentary or otherwise!) we'd be very glad to hear about them.

For the Big Buzzard Boogie Band's appearances at the Edinburgh Festival in 1999: 

Herald Ed. 2001

Big Buzzard Boogie Band

The Big Buzzard Boogie Band have been popular Spiegeltent visitors for some time, bringing with them an enthusiasm for big band swing, rockin' rhythm & blues, energetic jump jive and 70s ale.
Their lunchtime concert this weekend incorporated the Clifton Cathedral Choir and ran to spirituals and a performance of Duke Ellington's Sacred Cconcert. This made for something of a marathon session which ultimately placed rather too much emphasis on the admittedly well-trained choir, although the band, specially augmented for the occasion, made some noteable solo contributions to the Ellington piece. The collaboration also allowed several unusual experiences, not least the sound of a slightly plummy choir giving it big stuff on Lois Prima's rollicking Jump Jive And Wail and the, these days, novel sight of someone holding something to his ear in public that wasn't a mobile phone (it was choir director David Ogden's tuning fork). The Buzzards are here until Sunday, August 12. You won't get the choir. But you will get more of Louis D'Agostino's splendidly clipped, bluesy guitar playing. Fifer Jonathan Cairney's smooth vocalising, bullish saxophones, filthy trumpeting, and a dancefloor-friendly blend of musical discipline and roguish fun.

The Spiegeltent
Rob Adams

The Herald 19th August 1999

Music

Big Buzzard Boogie Band,
Spiegeltent
Rob Adams

Not only do you get to watch them drinking beer and hear a poem about their leader's early shaving experiences.
But the music comes first and a jolly proficient and wide sweeping brand of boogie it is too, taking Basie-style big band swing, some hard-driving, guitar-based Rhythm & Blues, spring heeled jump jive and when Dunfermline's Young Jass Singer of the Year Jonathan Cairney joins in, a touch of butt-bumpin' funk that, given a night-time slot, sounds like a dancefloor filler.
The less energetic can just sit and enjoy some mighty genial, and often homorous blowing and much friendly banter. But you'll have to buy your own beer.

Argus Review

Big band, big fun
Big Buzzard Boogie Band
Last week, Spiegeltent
Pavilion Gardens, Brighton
01273 709709

The spirits of Louis Prima, Cole Porter and Dizzie Gillespie were invoked by the men from the Big Buzzard Boogie Band with the fabulous Spiegeltent providing the perfect backdrop for their intoxicating blend of big-band swing, salsa and funk.

Audience participation added to the overall spectacle with talented kive dancers holding court just in front of the band, their black and white spats reduced to a blur as they took full advantage of the slippery wooden dance floor.

Musically, the band was electric, featuring piano, drums, guitar, double bass, and a stonking six-piece horn section held together by charismatic tenor saxophonist Andy Williamson.

Possibly Inspired by a drunk audience member who took to the dancefloor, at one point the brave Williamson clambered on to a table in the middle of the tent, precariously balancing on one leg while blowing out a monty solo, before taking the whole horn section off on an Ozomatik style walkabout through the crowd.

The Big Buzzard Boogie Band is a celebratory coctail of great music and great entertainment. If you missed out this time around, be sure to catch them over the last weekend of the festival.

Big Buzzard Boogie Band will be playing again at the Spiegeltent on Saturday, May 22nd at 4pm and Sunday, May 23rd at 7pm.

Luke Mc Mahoe
features@theargus.co.uk

Back