REVIEWS:
Blue Harlem Komedia, Brighton
From the archive, first published Monday 3rd Jul 2006. The enthusiastic crowd included high-stepping pensioners, teenagers and a coachload of Strictly Come Dancing wannabes. Blue Harlem come highly recommended. Michael Parkinson raves about them and claims he can't sit still to them. Led by arranger and sax player Al Nicholls, the band has been part of the jazz circuit for ten years and has made around 20 recordings. Paul Eldridge on keyboards deserves special mention for his superhuman accompaniments and solo sessions. Sam Brown's furious drum solo was another highlight. It was all over too soon and left you wanting more. Louder, faster and longer next time, please.
Allegedly HOT NEWS International Winter 2006
BLUE HARLEM – “Talk to Me” - HarlCD 007Janusz Carmello and I cycled to the launch party of this CD and had a jolly good time. The music was typically Al: raunchy, swinging, bluesy: the red wine was morish, or is that moreish? And Imelda May looked gorgeous and sang like a bad gal. Which means good. Mr. Nicholls has to be congratulated for pursuing the jump jive route with such relentless relish. To keep a band this size in business, along with several Reader’s Digest versions of it, requires dedication, love and courage. He seems to manage it all without developing any emotional baggage, not even under the eyes. It was good to see so many familiar faces on the bandstand of rather a louche club in Shepherd’s Bush. Many of them are also on this CD [all of them are on this CD – Al]. Simon Wallace is on keyboard, proving once again that he can do anything musically, anywhere, immaculately. The ever-supportive Pete Cook is on alto and baritone. And our hero John Day on double bass, playing with great confidence and a big sound. Others include Simon DaSilva and Sid Gould, trumpets; Sam Brown, drums; Jeff Williams, trombone; Mick Foster, baritone and Imelda herself, who represents the anomaly of an engine room at the front as well as at the back of the band. Of the fifteen tracks, all the arrangements are by Al except for two by Pete and one by Imelda. The tunes range from Ray Charles’s Hallelujah! I Love Him So to Billie Holliday’s Talk to Me Baby and Long Gone Blues. Easy winners for me are Nobody But Me, a slow minor-to-major expression of love with a very sleazy arrangement, Ev’ry Time I Hear That Mellow Saxophone, a rabble –rouser (providing the rabble are Latin American) stonker which should get the juices cascading, and Gone Walkin’, written by Jeff with an explosive arrangement by Pete. But it’s all terrific and I wanted to get up and dance when I put it on the player but Janusz has gone to Poland so I’ll just have to play a bit of air clarinet instead. Dick Laurie
METRO LIFE Friday Jan 13th 2006
Sophie Shaw’s six-track mix – On my iPOD ‘Teardrops From My Eyes’ by BLUE HARLEM. This song is so full of life. I first heard this swing-jazz band play at the 100 Club in London where they packed the dance floor with this number. Al Nicholls leads with superb sax and Imelda May’s vocals are bewitching and so powerful they knock you flat. I love the fact that a song that’s basically about being dumped can make you feel so good. Actress Sophie Shaw interviewed by Graeme Green
Blue Harlem - Talk To Me
'Blues In Britain Review. 11/2005 This is the third CD from these well-respected and always well-received swingers, comprising ex-members of outfits such as the Big Town Playboys, Ray Gelato, and King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys. This time around though the focus is definitely on the blues per se in many of its forms, from Billie Holiday (the title track), Ella Johnson and Ruth Brown via Ray Charles to New Orleans’ Roy Montrell and Muddy Waters. Imelda May is the vocalist of course (just two instrumental outings), and she fronts the big, brassy band of three saxmen, two trumpeters, and one trombonist, plus piano, bass and drums - as the late, great Al Casey once told me, the guitarist was always one of the more dispensable guys in a swing band. Not only do Imelda and the boys look the part but they sure sound it too. Maybe it is because of their respective backgrounds and regular playing for dancers (and a regular spot at the 100 Club) but there is no doubting that this is as authentic as jump ‘n’ jive is going to get these days - if you want to bring back the decade from 1945 onwards, this is the CD to do it. The full band only turns up on nine of the fifteen tracks but this only adds to the dynamics. The songs are all hand-picked and are all blues based; I did just mention ‘jump ‘n’ jive’ but this material encompasses everything that can come under that banner, stretching from swing to - almost, but not quite - rock ‘n’ roll, and it has to be said that the two numbers associated with the young Ray Charles - ‘Hallelujah! I Love Him So’ and ‘Drown In My Own Tears’ - are given simply stunning treatments. Mind you, every track is worthy of superlatives - so you can guess the rating, can’t you? Rating: 10 - Norman Darwen
THE (Cotswold) JOURNAL Thursday 21 July 2005
A weekend of great music, hot weather and plenty to drink is the best way to describe the CORNBURY FESTIVAL. The two-day event featured the UK's finest singers and songwriters, the experienced Elvis Costello and Joe Cocker and the youngsters Lucie Silvas and London's Amy Winehouse. THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE FESTIVAL WAS BLUE HARLEM, a swing jazz band who performed to crowds on the Sunday. The lead singer, a small Irish woman, belted out songs from the 1930s The adrenaline flowing from the band floated through into the crowd with the many, young and old, dancing to the sound of rhythm and blues. The Cornbury Festival has only been running for two years but with the huge turnout on Saturday and Sunday, July 9 and 10, and great artists performing there's no doubt the annual event will continue for many years to come.
JUMPIN´ AT THE WOODSIDE - Gloucester
"Blue Harlem has a well-deserved reputation as a fabulous dance band. Its precision, flavour and passion set you up on the dance floor and keep you there. Blue Harlem have improved on their already mega appeal - Imelda May on vocals backed up by a top line up of British Musicians, lead by the fabulously talented Al Nicholls, will leave you wanting more and more. The bands repertoire will have you hopping about like a loon as well as bringing you up close and personal in the slow blues numbers. Blue Harlem have played all over the world and underlying the cool sound of the band there is a steely heat that means this band are truly stacked to deliver the goods. You Keep saying how great they are and we keep getting them back, so much so they qualify as the Jumping at the Woodside house band."
Gordon Baxter - 13th Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival
The final evening was a real treat. Blue Harlem literally set things swinging with a set of big band blues. Al Nicholls led the horns through the excellent opening instrumental "Hats Off To Mr. Lee" before introducing Imelda Clabby on vocals. She is a terrific singer, combining really well with the big band to tackle songs by Wynona Carr and Lavern Baker, as well as an excellent reworking of Ray Charles, "I Got a Woman" as "I Got a Lover".