On saturday I went to Ronnie Scotts in London for a Christmas Jazz Lunch with my ladies saxophone group, Saxation. We caught the 9.06a.m. train to London. The fun started on the train, we were dressed to kill and pushed off with a buck’s fizz, smoked salmon and a lot of laughs. Elevenses was acknowledged with a bottle of prosecco and coffee to quell the fervour. Ronnie’s has changed since I was there in the seventies. My first impression was one of a slick operation and it was a lot ‘posher’. We sipped more prosecco and a magician performed extraordinary tricks with two balls that made Jenny’s eyes grow wider in wonder. The pianist was the incredible James Pearson, bassist Sam Burgess, drummer Pedro Segundo with Alex Garnett on tenor sax. They were joined by singer Natalie Williams who managed to keep control of a lot of impromptu audience participation, ourselves included. A visiting Berlinner sang ‘Santa Baby’ that left us sliding under the table it was so sexy.
Our moment of glory, Jenny and I went up on the stage to participate in the annual contest to find the best ‘bazukker’ player. We announced ourselves, the girls from Saxation, the only sax players improvising this year. We got off to a false start before launching into the worst ever rendition of Frosty The Snowman. Jenny wound her long legs around me and the microphone in an atempt to salvage something in our presentation. Undaunted we continued until Alex pleaded with us to stop. There is a video and photos and what’s more three people approached us afterwards asking where we were playing next, they loved us! All too soon we were back on the train, it was the best day out ever and the best fun with the best bunch of girls I have the good fortune to know and play saxophone with.
RONNIE SCOTTS’
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