Kansas Smitty's – Drapers Hall

 

Kansas Smitty's – Drapers Hall

by Pete Clemons

Built in 1832 Drapers Hall sits on the junction of Bayley Lane and Priory Street just across from the old cathedral.

Extensive restoration work saw the building open as a music venue just over a year ago. An incredible project that has given Drapers Hall with the most elegant of interiors. The top of a curved staircase eventually leads you to a magnificent music room.

And to mark that year as an active concert room Drapers Hall recently invited London based jazz outfit, The Kansas Smitty's to help celebrate the event. The Kansas Smitty's, on this occasion, were a septet headed by American-Italian alto-saxophonist and clarinettist Giacomo Smith.

Covering traditional and modern jazz this was a band containing many facets. That said the tunes covered, as far as I understand, were all originals. It was an exceptional experience. Ensemble passages were effectively played with real artistry and the solos, often quite brilliant in themselves, fitted supremely into the performance.

In the distant past, and when, the music had a solo section, the soloist had to make their way to the optimum position to enable him or herself to be heard. The Smitty's, either came with or, were treated with an excellent sound system enabling the soloist to perform without the routine of stepping up front.

There was also a time when jazz traditionalists and the modernists confronted each other artistically.

The trads would label the modernists as 'the more extremist elements of the younger jazz generation'. They were accused of hogging the limelight. However a number of musicians committed to neither the trads or the avant garde worked away assiduously at developing a form which embraced the best elements of the past, present and the future.

More than fifty years on from those largely forgotten times and jazz bands nowadays seem to continue to do what they what. And that's what I heard from the Kansas Smitty's. Music without boundaries yet capturing elements of all jazz styles.

Waves of nostalgia washed over us during this gig. At least for me they did. The gig came just as I had completed a series of Coventry related jazz articles. Researching those articles got me very absorbed in the whole romance of the genre. And now here we were being entertained by some of the most classiest exponents that particular music scene has around today. In short, excellent and timeless music in the Ellington manner.

The Kansas Smitty's are also a house band. A quote from folk far more eloquent than me 'Music this good needs a place to live. That’s why the band run their own bar on Broadway Market, London, where they meet to record, play, drink, and entertain audiences'.

Support for the evening came from Duke Keats and his bands unique take on creating more than just a gig. Costume, feedback, artistry, it appeared to have it all.