I never thought I’d find a better place to enjoy live jazz than sat on a stool leaning against the bar at Soho’s Ronnie Scott’s. That was until I discovered the Splash Point Jazz Club at The View, Seaford Head. Also with stools and a bar to lean on but better still – just a walk from my home and those of the other south coast jazz fans snapping their fingers.
UK jazz is enjoying a resurgence both live and on record and what better place to enjoy it than in our own backyard. For this we have to thank pianist, vocalist, songwriter, music producer, raconteur and Seaford man Neal Richardson. This workaholic virtuoso musician draws upon his experiences performing in over 50 countries with 25 album production credits to his name, much in evidence at a recent Splash Point event with guest Argentinian/Italian tenor saxophonist Enrique Thompson stopping by amid a European tour. The set list infused blues tango samba and jazz funk with plenty of opportunity for Thompson to sweeten and explore the melodies, and for double bassist Miles Danso and drummer Eric Ford to improvise. Richardson’s elegant bluesy piano vignettes tied it all together.
Richardson’s own compositions included Delicious Circle, that he also sang, a song inspired by the latin culture he fell for with wife Sue while working a cruise liner to South America. A sublime moment when Sue (always a welcome addition to Splash Point) swapped her trumpet for the flugelhorn, duetting with Thompson on the beguiling Song For Natalie. She stepped up again alongside another local musician flautist Andy Panyi for Song For Someone. This Thompson composition had the haunting melodic expansiveness of a film soundtrack.
And all of this right here in Seaford, for twenty quid – plus a meal if you’re peckish, and most are on
my visits.
There is something disarmingly casual and neighbourly about these jazz nights, notably when members of the audience are asked to move window blinds or turn off lights. Or when Sue Richardson had to forgo a music stand and stoop down to read her sheet music on the seat of a chair. Humour too as when she returned to the stage for her husband’s No Better Blues with him remarking ‘some vacuous people do a costume change between numbers. Sue did an instrument change.’ Forgoing the flugelhorn for her customary trumpet.
This month (10th November) at Splash Point Jazz Neal Richardson is joined by jazz violinist and blues guitarist Mike Piggot the go-to fiddler for everyone from Ralph McTell to Guy Barker and the next month (8th December) Sue Richardson returns with tenor saxophonist Jo Fooks for a pine-scented glittery Christmas Special! Ding Dong!
If you can’t wait, Neal Richardson regularly hosts Saturday night jazz dinners at The Old Plough, in Church Street and further afield Sunday lunchtime shows at The Relais Cooden Beach, and the first Wednesday of every month at Eastbourne’s Fishermens Club. And of course Ronnie Scott’s where I hope to be on a stool leaning against the bar again.
But all good things come to an end, in this case with the night’s sweet spot Sue Richardson singing I Just Can’t Help Myself, a song she wrote inspired by Buena Vista Social Club. What a way to say goodnight, gazing upon a lambent sea stretching from Seaford’s Esplanade all the way to a glorious cloud-streaked sunset. I get The Splash Point.
Splash Point Jazz Club at The View at Seaford Head Golf Course. www.splashpointmusic.com
Jonathan Futrell
Photo l-r: Neal Richardson, Miles Danso, Sue Richardson, Enrique Thompson, Eric Ford.
