The Bowlo To The Rescue

Jam session review of 19th January 2025

Once we had confirmed that the Big C was staying shut until 3rd Feb, we had less than 24 hours to organise a back-up plan, comprising alternative venue, alternative gear (ours was locked up in the Cornerstone), a bunch of emails, and a smattering of cheerful optimism. The Bowls Club were somewhat reluctant, given the short notice, but we piled in, tuned up and played a smooth little set of instrumentals - whereupon the Club manager, grinning from ear to there, offered the opinion that we were "fabulous" and would we keep doing it.

Do it we did, with a short invocation of gratitude to Brian the Patron Saint of the Cloth Ear, and by stumps, eighteen musos  had played. Highlights? Well, all of them were good, but let's single out Kev, who chose One For My Baby - a Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen song made to sound easy by Frank Sinatra, but it has an atypical form, 58 bars, and key changes all over the place. The result ?  Splendid train wreck of the first order.

Not that trainwrecks were the order of the day - far from it - the standard of music was as good as ever, the gossip flowed, and a generous audience clearly enjoyed it all.