Review: Mike Denham at the Ilminster Arts Centre (From This is The West Country)

Review: Mike Denham at the Ilminster Arts Centre

11:40am Tuesday 9th February 2010

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FOR his latest speakeasy evening at the Ilminster Arts Centre, Mike Denham brought Steve Graham, a local trumpet and mandolin player.

Ragtime was the main genre on the programme, but with several digressions.

Steve's trumpet-playing warmed up after 'Putting on the Ritz', and the atmosphere soon got into gear with his use of mutes, especially the wah-wah effect.

Mike's playing is always very precise, as we heard in the opening 'Harlem Rag'.

Ragtime has never quite recovered from the 'classical' performances by Joshua Rifkin in the 1970s, a far cry from the ragtime marches that began life in the red-light districts of St Louis and New Orleans.

I particularly admired the sultry 'Bethena: A Concert Waltz' - probably Joplin's best work.

The performance held the already attentive audience; and the gentle tempo and beguiling modulations were enhanced by the colour of Steve's mandolin playing.

Lord Invader and Lionel Belasco's calypso, 'Rum and Coca Cola' - a big hit with the Andrew Sisters in 1945 - was notable for trumpeter Steve's beautiful pianissimo control.

Their final number, 'Shake it, Break it!' blew away any remaining cobwebs and sent us all home in high spirits.

ANTHONY PITHER

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