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THE FRANK BELL ALL STARS:         FOR THE SOUND OF SWING  

Recorded live at the Old Duke. King Street, Bristol

Jumping At The Woodside; Autumn Leaves; Don't Get Around Much Any More; Route 66; You're Driving Me Crazy; Take The 'A' Train; Duke's Blues; S'Wonderful; Once In A While; Every Day I Have The Blues; If I Had You; Boogie Woogie Blues (71.21)

Frank Bell (v): with Denny Blackmore (t); Bobby Fox (tb); Martin Genge (ts); John Barton (bar); Bruce Boardman (p); Mike Britton (g); Clive Morton (b); Chris Pope (d).The Old Duke, Bristol , 1998 (IFP 0798 CD)

"Around 1935 you'll begin to hear swing, boogie woogie and jive.....so wrote Hoagy Carmichael in his song 'The Old Music Master'

This, as Frank tells us was true for him. At the age of nine he started to take an interest in the dance bands of the day. He made his debut singing and tap dancing to a tune called 'I Double Dare You'. Over the next few years he would comb the shortwave band on a Cosser Wireless in search of American swing bands.

 He was 'called up' in 1944 at the age of 18 and found himself in Belgium where he won his first singing contest against a GI.

 Whilst singing in the N.A.A.F.I. at Bielefeld in Germany in 1947 he was spotted by a talent scout from the British Forces Network Dance Band in Hamburg, and joined them for the last few months of his service.

Frank married in 1956 and became a sales rep, but the travelling curtailed his jazz involvement. On retirement in 1991, he began to sing again with local bands until he formed his own outfit 'The Frank Bell All Stars'.

Here at last is a band which recreates the style and excitement of the ''Jazz At The Philharmonic" tours

which presented such artists as Oscar Peterson, Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich and Roy Eldridge. The

band features some of the most talented musicians in the West Country."

The CD is available for £10 plus £1 postage from Frank Bell whose telephone number is 01275 876677.

"A set of live recordings featuring an enthusiastic vocalist and a lively swing band in a West Country hotel. The participants may be full time professionals or perhaps they are amateurs or semi-pros, but they make a joyful noise and clearly give a lot of pleasure to a warmly responsive audience. Sadly, the piano is no Bechstein and it lets down a very able ivory tickler in Bruce Boardman. Every member of the band gets to solo and the reed players are both excellent improvisers. The brass men gleam in their turn and I was particularly impressed by the plunger sound of Bobby Fox. The rhythm section is sparked by an able time­keeper in Chris Pope, and the whole ensemble sound of the group is commendable. On numbers like Duke's Blues and Boogie Woogie Stomp the place was really rocking, I'm sure. There are half a dozen vocal offerings by leader Frank Bell, who seems to be a great local favourite judging by the reaction of the audience. He can swing and he certainly phrases like a jazzer! It is a good foot tapping and happy sound that these men make and they create a genuinely pleasurable party atmosphere. Eddie Blackwell." 

FRANK BELL ALL STARS For The Sound Of Swing Ian Fisher Productions IFP 0798 CD (71.00)

"Let me say here and now that this disc projects 71 minutes of sheer musical fun happy, boisterous stuff in the main; a genuine 'jam session' atmosphere pervading the middle-of-the-road and relaxed presentation, and Frank Bell is to be congratulated on assembling such a talented and committed group of jazzmen. The session was recorded 'live' at that well-known jazz location, The Old Duke, King Street, Bristol, and things really come to life with a torridly swinging, up tempo bash at Count Basie's Jumpin' At The Woodside, where the combination of a fine 4-piece rhythm section with exciting solos all round literally catapults one into the action and the atmosphere of a grand, no-holds-barred, old-fashioned (in the best possible sense) celebration of what live jazz is all about. All members of this group (piano, bass, guitar, drums, 2 brass, 2 reeds) perform with skill and swing, and above all, a sensitivity for the blues, that essential ingredient of our music. If, momentarily, individual enthusiasms may out­strip accuracy, I don't find this at all deterring - more a confirmation of that free, jam­session mode. But, back to the blues, and to Frank Bell. I find his forceful, feelingful vocals the very embodiment of true blues rhetoric - heard in, say, the work of Jimmy Rushing, Joe Williams et al. And certainly not a slavish copy of such masters but an intelligent, deeply committed cataloguing of the rich, blue noted music which is the blues.

And, as a group, the All Stars produce happy, uncomplicated music, neat riffs. In all an all round tonic. I have to mention the Dukish (and what's wrong with that, eh?) piano from Bruce Boardman, well-influenced by the master, emerging with credit and charm. Bell's boys certainly get on with it - a generous and gutsy disc."