Sensational Danish-born singer Sara Oschlag and Director of the Ronnie Scott’s Big Band Pete Long pay tribute to the 1957 recording session “Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Songbook' , arranged by Billy Strayhorn.
The music is stunning, the band is swinging, and we wholeheartedly advise you to get a ticket while they are available!
With Colin Good on piano, Matt Skelton on drums and Marianne Windham on bass.
Pre gig menu from Mandira’s Kitchen (please see the Event Info tab for the menu)
Please click the tabs for more information
EVENT INFO
The performance is upstairs in Guildford Pavilion, The Sports Ground, Woodbridge Road, Guildford GU1 4RP
Please note there are no physical tickets, just give your name on the door when you arrive. There’ll be seating reserved for you.
Doors open and supper available from 7pm, performance 8pm to about 10:15pm (with interval). Licensed bar. Seating is cabaret style and there is a lift for disabled access.
Pre-gig Menu from Mandira’s Kitchen: (please select chicken or vegetarian )
TICKETS
Full Price £20 /Guildford Jazz Members £18
Students £7 / Student Members £5
Meals £13
WHO'S PLAYING?
Sara Oschlag - vocals
Danish-born Brighton resident Sara Oschlag has quietly established herself as one of the UK’s premier jazz vocalists. She is a regular performer at leading jazz festivals and venues, including Ronnie Scott’s, Love Supreme Festival, Jazz at The Lincoln Center and The Pheasantry in Chelsea.
Sara is equally at home in the role of band leader and is a much-in-demand special guest, she has recently appeared as a featured vocalist with Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra, Pete Long’s Echoes of Ellington Big Band and Arnie Somogyi’s Scenes in The City Band, and duetted with US trumpet/vocal star Benny Benack III for Brighton Jazz Festival.Sara’s honest stage presence and effortless sense of swing have made her a firm favourite with jazz audiences across the UK
. She has been hailed a ‘musician’s singer’ due to her wonderful way of using dynamics, texture and rhythm to sing the songs. An effortlessly hip, intelligent interpreter of songs in the jazz tradition, her vocal influences include Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, Anita O’Day, Shirley Horn, Cecile McLorin Salvant., and of course Ella Fitzgerald.
“Sara’s stylish, imaginative phrasing and insouciant verve blew everyone away”– Jon Newey – Jazzwise editor
Pete Long - clarinet/sax
Pete’s career began fairly inauspiciously at the age of 18 deep within the bowels of the Nat West bank in Marble Arch putting bank statements into envelopes. An unfortunate incident involving a picture of a lady and a horse being accidentally sent to the Convent of the Sacred Heart along with their financial records led to a re-think and a few days later, Pete had enrolled at the Royal London College Of Music. After a couple of years of hard study, ruthless self-denial and curry, Pete was out on the road with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, and during his time there, got to play all five saxophone parts, the solo flute part, the bass guitar, and on one rather messy occasion, the fourth trumpet. Having the unusual inclination to play modern jazz on the rather “old-fashioned” Clarinet led to several works for Clarinet and big band being commissioned during his stay, and established a tradition of Clarinet solos in NYJO which has plagued the saxophone section ever since.
After the apprenticeship had been served, fame and endless riches were only around the corner in the form of the John Simons Rhumba Showband on the QE2, and Pete’s orange frilly flamenco shirtsleeves and sassy sombrero became one of the familiar sights in the bars, clubs and clinics around the ports of the Caribbean Sea. At this time, Pete acquired the knack of bandleading, assembling ad-hoc ensembles on the ship for various passenger and crew functions. Serious playing work followed on the return to Blighty, as the award winning Sax Quartet “Itchy Fingers” had a job going on Alto Sax. Pete passed the audition, and toured Brazil, Venezuela, North Africa, Russia and Europe during his three year stay there, working with, amongst others, Dizzy Gillespie, John Scofield, Chick Corea and Supersax.
Due to an inspired bit of orchestral management by “a friend”, The bulk of Pete’s work for the next six years was in and around the West End theatres, where his versatility on many different woodwind instruments has stood him in good stead, most notably on the notorious Clarinet solo in the closing sequences of the hit show “Oliver”. During this time, Pete developed an interest in the Oboe, and after a rigorous six-hour a day practice schedule for several months, no calls at all came flooding in, and the oboe went forlornly back under the bed. Some time later, a call came to play a session doubling baritone sax and oboe. That session was for “Handbags and Gladrags” for the hit Welsh beat combo “Stereophonics” and the single held a chart position in Europe for the next eighteen months, becoming the single best selling recording in the UK for 2002, a sales figure no doubt boosted by its use as the theme for the comedy series “The Office”.
A five-year stint playing and arranging for with Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, saw Pete working with Tom Jones, Norah Jones, Solomon Burke, Dr. John, Lulu, Georgie Fame and Lionel Richie, to name but a few, and producing arrangements for John Cale, Texas, Sir Paul McCartney, Candi Staton, Marti Pellow and Chrissy Hynde. Pete is also the first musician in Europe to use the Tubax commercially, on a Ringo Starr track, and much more recently with The Guillemots.
Over the last couple of years, Pete’s career has divided into three distinct streams- as an educator, working in master classes and as soloist with young musicians all over Britain, from the furthest point of West Wales to the orchestras at the Royal Academy, The Guildhall and the Royal College. In conjunction with this work, Pete has helped develop a new series of student woodwind instruments with a leading UK Manufacturer. As a jazz soloist, Pete has appeared with resident trios in the provinces, and has often been caught at Ronnie Scott’s, in London’s West End.
It is however, as a bandleader and orchestrator that Pete spends most of his time currently, and directing the Big Band at Ronnie Scott’s alongside his own projects. These include his award-winning repertory orchestra Echoes Of Ellington, whose 2018 album “The Jazz Planets” won the Times “Must Have Jazz CD Of The Year”. Further commissions have involved a re-imagining of Swan Lake in the style of Duke Ellington, and a transcription and re-orchestration of “The Days Of Future Passed” for the Moody Blues. In the course of this work, Pete has provided musicians and arrangements for Claire Sweeney, Jane MacDonald, Humphrey Lytlleton, Sir John Dankworth, the entire cast of Emmerdale (!) and a host of others.
Colin Good - piano
At the age of 11 Colin became choral scholar at Magdalen College School, Oxford. In the 1980s he studied composition and keyboards at Oxford University and, all the while, he was developing his jazz playing and arranging skills in the clubs of London.Over the next decade, Colin worked as player, composer and arranger, mixing TV and theatre work with his role as musical director of the 30's-style orchestra Vile Bodies.
He was enlisted as pianist and musical director on the Roxy Music reunion tour 2001. Colin has gone on to work closely with Bryan Ferry in arranging and production for some of the 'Frantic' album and is also the pianist & musical director on the 'Frantic' 2002 tour.
Influenced by Earl Hines and Teddy Wilson, Colin is an internationally renowned authority on the jazz piano stylings of the 1920s and 1930s. His career has seem him tour with ensembles such as The Ink Spots and he is the musical director and pianist in the Brian Ferry Orchestra, whose music was featured on the soundtrack to the 2013 Hollywood blockbuster The Great Gatsby.
Matt Skelton - drums
Marianne Windham - bass
DIRECTIONS
The performance is upstairs in the Pavilion building at the Guildford County Cricket Club, The Sports Ground, Woodbridge Road, Guildford GU1 4RP
For sat navs please check the postcode takes you to Wharf Road. There’s a car park alongside, entry from Wharf Road. If you’re approaching from Guildford town centre, Wharf Road is on the left just before the Sports Ground. If you’re approaching from the A3/Ladymead there’s no right turn into Wharf Road, but continue to the next roundabout to double back.
The car park next to the Pavilion holds about 40 cars (to enable emergency access, cars can only park in the marked bays). Unless it’s very wet, the overflow car park at the far end of the Cricket ground will be open.
To access the overflow car park, turn left as you come out of Wharf Road and carry on along Woodbridge Road towards the railway bridge, and the entrance to the ground is just before the end of the green fence that runs along the perimeter of the ground, next to the Woodbridge Café.
You might prefer to use one of the larger public car parks which are just a few minutes walk away: the open air Mary Road Car Park (GU1 4QU) or multi-storey Bedford Road Car Park (GU1 4SJ)
SEATING
Seating is either in front row settees/armchairs, central round tables, or rear high chairs/tables. Seats will be reserved for you when you book. If you’re a Guildford Jazz member, please let us know if you have a seating preference in on the booking form. Notes on the layout:
Front row: Seats 1 to 5 are sofas or armchairs
Middle tables: Tables 6 to 23 and 32 are small tables , each seating 4 (for bookings of 1 or 2 seats, we’ll seat you at a table with others, please let us know if you have friends coming who you’d like to sit with!).
Rear tables: Tables 24 to 29 are tall tables suitable for 2 people, with high stools.
Groups: Table 31 and 32 are suitable for larger group of 6 or more
High stools : 30 and 34 are single high stools (no table) , suitable for 1 to 3 people