Ronnie Scott’s is probably one of the swankiest and most over-priced jazz clubs in the country. It used to be a bit tatty, but they did it up a while back and now it looks like a glorified lapdance club. It’s too shiny to be a jazz club. Any time you expect poles to come out of the ceiling!

Anyway, despite this and the extorionate entry fees, they do do some damn good jazz. In June a new project kicked off, led by Gerard Presencer, Head of Jazz at the Royal Academy of Music, I believe. He leads a bigband, made up of the finest the UK scene has to offer. It includes the legendary Pete King on alto-sax and Tom Richards on tenor. Tom is a sort-of-friend and has a bright future ahead of him and if anyone finds his Selmer that got nicked after this gig, please return it to him.

So, yes, onto the gig. I went along, partly because of Tom, partly because Jamie Cullum was guesting. I will admit that I have lost count of the times I have seen Jamie live. I think it must be over 20 by now. So, to see Jamie with a bigband was a bit of a treat and a rarity and worth splashing some cash on.

The Vanguard Bigband is modelled after the bigband playing at the famous New York jazz joint The Village Vanguard and aims to bring together damn good players on the scene and make some damn good music. Gerard Presencer took it upon himself to bring this concept to London and Ronnie Scott’s seemed the place to do it. Well, Mr. Presencer did a fantastic job and if tickets weren’t 30 quid I would so be there every single month. I have a soft spot for bigbands, especially when they’re good. And this Vanguard Bigband is bloody amazing. The amount of talent in this city continues to amaze me.

The gig itself was a nice mix of some true classics and new material. The setlist is a bit of a blur, but it did contain Tom’s great arrangement of Gershwin’s Fascinating Rhythm (which should be available on the Tom Richards Orchestra’s debut album in a few months time! /shamelss plug).

Jamie was his wonderful usual self. He tried out some new material, which was really nice and it’d be interesting to see if Universal will allow a song on his new album containing a line along the lines of his girlfriend getting really drunk and getting sick in the taxi. Nice one, Jamie. Jamie’s ’sabbatical’ is treating him well. He looked rested and his vocals were back where I expect them to be from Jamie. It was fantastic to hear some of his tracks with a big band, especially ‘Get Your Way’ which features a bigband sample and at gigs he uses a deck to mess about with the sample.

It was a great evening and I can recommend anyone who likes a bit of jazz to go and see this bigband. Talented musicians deserve our support. I will definitely go agan, although the price is putting me off to go more often.