HOAGY!

Sold out at Ronnie Scott’s in 2014 and 2015, a festival hit in Canterbury, Buxton, Edinburgh, Rye, Aberjazz, Devizes, Caterham, Norwich, Woolpit and Bury St Edmunds, and a Sunday Times Top 10 Jazz album of 2014, Chris Ingham’s Hoagy! is packed with the songs and stories of one of America’s most enduring and endearing songwriters. Wry, wise, sentimental, down-home and sophisticated, Hoagy Carmichael’s songs are beloved for their warmth, wit and melodic beauty. This joyful, edifying and heartfelt salute to the Old Music Master features many engaging anecdotes and insights along with tracks from Chris’s acclaimed CD Hoagy including well-loved hits (Stardust, How Little We Know, Georgia On My Mind, Skylark, Ole Buttermilk Sky, Lazy Bones, et al) alongside obscure nuggets and delightful curiosities from Hoagy’s rich and varied songbook.

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"One of Britain's best singer-pianists...sophisticated tribute...charming work"  ****
LONDON EVENING STANDARD

"Captures the spirit of a 20th-century giant...a delightful package" **** OBSERVER

“Hoagy Carmichael was special...Ingham knows and understands" MOJO

"This is just lovely..." SUNDAY TIMES - JAZZ CD of the WEEK & TOP 10 JAZZ CD 2014

“Classy product…with plenty of the right kind of swing” **** JAZZ JOURNAL

“Hits the sweet spot every time” **** BBC MUSIC

“An excellent night by any criteria…the music was of the highest calibre...highly informative and entertaining” JAMES ALBRECHT, STUDIO DIRECTOR ST JAMES THEATRE, SW1

"Outstanding quartet...inspired solo forays...nifty and concise arrangements...a fine delectation of Hoagy delights conveyed masterfully" LONDON JAZZ NEWS

"Mighty fine piano...no mere hanging on the shirt-tails of the great man, Ingham has his own personality...'Dear Bix' is one of the most emotional pieces I've ever listened to...perfect underpinnings...[an] outstanding CD" 
BEBOP SPOKEN HERE

A celebration of the great American songwriter Hoagy Carmichael

Hoagy Carmichael is one of the most enduring and endearing songwriters from the Golden Age of the Great American Songbook. Wry, wise, sentimental and sophisticated, Hoagy’s songs are beloved for their warmth, humour and jazz-inspired melodic beauty. From the prescient wit of ‘Old Music Master’ and the exotic misadventures of an opium-eater in ‘Hong Kong Blues’ to the spirit-calming, timeless evocation of home in ‘Memphis In June’ and ‘Georgia On My Mind’, these characterful gems of 20th century songcraft continue to have unique power to move and delight.

Infused with the hot jazz spirit of legendary jazz cornettist and Hoagy’s dear friend Bix Beiderbecke, we unearthed some fascinating curiosities from Hoagy’s songbook and aimed to invest even the most familiar standards with a straight-ahead freshness. Like all successful songbooks, composers’ intentions tend to get obscured along the way. Listening to Hoagy’s own recordings as inspiration helped us get closer to the essence of the song. Tunes we’ve played a thousand times seemed to take on a new shine.

Among the Hoagy gems here are two songs not penned by Carmichael. Banjo player Clancy Hayes wrote the still outrageous ‘Huggin’ And Chalkin’’ (a hit for Hoagy in the 1940s) while contemporary songwriting sage Dave Frishberg, the most potent and erudite of Hoagy’s Children, wrote ‘Dear Bix’. Hoagy was famously grief-stricken when Bix died and ‘Dear Bix’ sounds like a Hoagy love song channelled through Frishberg. It just seemed to belong.

The project originated as a one-off concert for a festival, but the rush of good feeling generated by the show in both audience and band couldn’t be ignored. A warm public response to Hoagy’s songs was expected, but the musicians’ inspired and joyful reaction to this rich and varied songbook was a revelation. We had no choice, here it is.

CHRIS INGHAM QUARTET

Chris Ingham vocals/piano

Paul Higgs trumpet

Geoff Gascoyne bass

George Double drums