The Swing and Swing Again Big Band featuring the Mike Baker Saxophone Sextet played Sale Waterside tonight as part of the Sale Festival. They are a seventeen piece band (eighteen if you include Mike Baker, the MD and also a player with the Mike Baker Saxophone Sextet) and were joined tonight on vocals by Jamie Smith and Annette Reis.
Right from the start, it was clear that the band are very popular and it's easy to understand why. Mike Baker is a very likeable MD and he struck up a good rapport with the audience from the word go, telling us little anecdotes about the band and linking the numbers together. He is also an extremely talented musician, playing acoustic guitar, saxophone and clarinet.
The evening started with When The Saints Go Marching In which was a lively and rousing way to start – impossible not to tap your feet to. For the next number – Pennsylvania 65000 – we were encouraged to join in by Mike.
The stage was a little bit cramped and when Jamie and Annette stood up to sing, their positioning meant that they were blocking some of the Saxophone section so we couldn't see them playing. A small point but it would have been better if things hadn't been quite so cramped – Mike kept having to go backwards and forwards with his music stand when he played an instrument and although this didn't impede the proceedings at all, it would have probably made his life easier had everything been a bit better spaced out.
Jamie Smith, one of the vocalists, had a lounge lizard attitude when called for and a cheeky smile. He had buckets of enthusiasm, particularly during At The Hop. I would have liked him to have been wearing a jacket though – all the band members were in dinner jackets and bow ties and although Jamie was wearing a bow tie, the lack of a jacket just let his appearance down a little. There were two guest trombonists from the Royal Northern College of Music – George and Ethan and they really shone, particularly during their solos in Watermelon Man.
The George Ezra song, Budapest, lent itself very well to a big band arrangement and was dedicated to a young lady in the audience whose birthday it was today. Mike Baker sang this one and I liked his relaxed, easy style and unassuming voice.
I found it a little odd that the house lights were only slightly dimmed during the whole evening – this meant that there was no separation really between us and the band and as my theatre companion observed "I don't want to feel like I'm part of it" - I agreed with this, it would have felt more professional if the audience had been in darkness and maybe the band would also have preferred this, it must be intimidating to be able to see everyone's expressions while they're watching you.
There was good banter between the band and Mike Baker and this made for a very warm atmosphere and relaxed ambience.
The first half ended with Annette singing Hey Big Spender. She sang this with great attitude but I felt it was a little high pitched for her vocal range – when she sang some lower notes, this was much more suited to her and gave the song the sass it demands.
My favourite song of the second half was the Pink Panther theme. This was played excellently by the band and was totally authentic Henry Mancini.
There were two songs sung by Nick (one of the Saxophone Sextet) in the second half – the first being U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For and the second Fields of Gold. There was no big band arrangement for the first one, it was guitars and singer only. I didn't particularly care for the arrangement and would have preferred them to keep to the Big Band jazz feel of the evening.
The final song was What A Wonderful World and Mike commented that it is a wonderful world, despite everything going on. This was presumably a reference to the recent events in Orlando and it made the song have an extra poignant feel.
As an 'encore', Annette sang It's Not Unusual which Mike dedicated to the Welsh football team.
All in all it was a good selection of songs from a variety of genres so there was something to please everyone. A very enjoyable evening.
Reviewed: 13th June 2016
Reviewer: Nicky Lambert
North West End Rating: ★★★