The Incredible Sax Band - Clapham Common, London

There’s something wonderfully timeless about reclining dreamily in a deckchair in a green, summery, sunlit London park, while a band playing in the bandstand prevents dreaminess from evolving into doziness or, worse, snoriness.

This was the experience I found myself enjoying last Sunday afternoon (10^th July) – and I must say that the band was easily good enough to keep even the slightest trace of doziness at bay.

They were The Incredible Sax Band, and offering us as they did the fairly incredible sight of a band made up of no more and no less than eleven saxes (with the addition only of leader/conductor Howard Turner) they certainly lived up to their name.

And didn’t they sound good.  With a more-or-less equal blend of sopranos, altos, tenors and baritones, the sound was rich, full and impressively layered – also, considering that they played without amplification, extraordinarily well-balanced.

And with the band having played together a good deal recently in preparation for their excursion later this week to the legendary Montreux Jazz Festival, the playing was exceptionally tight and precise.

The first set showed the range and versatility of the band, including a couple of standards (a delicate and emotional version of “Misty” stood out) and a number of original compositions by band members.  Band leader Howard Turner’s “Cannonballing” would have pleased the great man, a powerful and tightly structured piece featuring some impressive soloing.  By contrast, the last number in the set, “Russian Dance,” written by another band member, combined a haunting melody with striking harmonies.

The event was a family reunion for me, so the interval involved much catching-up with cousins, nieces, nephews and so on, and the consumption of a fair few cheese and pickle sandwiches and mini flapjack bites. 

All of this set me up nicely for the second set, which was somewhat more upbeat and uptempo, and included extremely cunning and sophisticated arrangements of some well-known standards not exactly conceived with an eleven-saxophone band in mind (for example, the “Hawaii 5-0” theme and Van Morrison’s classic “Moondance”).  With some top-quality soloing from James Taylor (tenor) and Duncan Hope (alto), among others, and some exceptionally tight and controlled ensemble playing, the biggest compliment I can pay the band is that the lack of any kind of rhythm section didn’t really matter at all.  And I say that as an ex-bass player who doesn’t usually think a number has started properly until the bass and drums come in.

All too soon, the band was into its final number – Herbie Hancock’s classic Watermelon Man – and then it was over.  I rose a little stiffly from my deckchair.  “That was excellent,” I thought to myself.  “I wonder if there are any of those cheese and pickle sandwiches left?”

Lucian Camp