Best smallest big band get bigger, boldly going further.

Release Date: 29th April 2024

Label: Mrs. Casey Music

Format: CD / digital

Banter do Bowie? Sadly, no, the title referring to their collected heroes, as listed across the album sleeve, chosen by this now established quartet, fast becoming festival favourites. Yes, there are a cover or two included, as is their wont, for those who recall their Roxanne from Dare, in 2019? (Which makes me wonder whether there is pattern in their album titles, with ‘3’, in 2021 perhaps a tribute to The Atomic Bitchwax’s album of the same name?) But don’t let that disappointment put you off, as the cornucopia of music included here goes even further in their mission to become the UK’s foremost melodeon, piano and trumpet band. With Simon Care at the helm, how could they fail?

Care is, of course, the melodeon stalwart of Moulton village, Northampton, player for the morris side turned E11 top squeezer, as well as various Albion and other related Hutchings’ associations. His cohorts are Nina Zella, of voice and electric piano, responsible also for the bulk of their original songs, Tim Walker, who somehow juggles the brass and the drums, often at once, and “new boy”, Mark Jolley, on bass, guitar and fiddle. Walker and Jolley sing, too. No wonder they call them the world’s smallest big band.

Venerable trad stalwart, The Oak And The Ash (aka North Country Maid in the throats of the Watersons) bounces out the traps with a bluesy piano and fiddle led charge. Incorporating the tune of Cock O’ The North, Walker’s drums are precise four to the floor. Zella has one of those slightly smoky voices, her texture very redolent of a smoother Cathy Lesurf, and the arrangement is very Albion Band, 1990s vintage. The heys will be better live than on record, but it is. promising start. Picking A Ship is one of hers, with attractive piano play lending a near jazzy feel, an the handclap percussion, alongside, a counter-intuitive blend that works well. It’s a good song. Jolley throws in a violin solo that is more Stephane Grappelli than Phil Beer, each of whom, by the way, feature in the list of Heroes. The echo delay of double tracked vocals, with the men chiming in just below, makes for an elegant midsong lift. (And, if you can get that recurring piano rolling motif out of your ear, you’re a better man than I.)

Rolling Down The Ryburn comes from the pen of Pete Coe, with piano reminding, once more, how rare an instrument is in, nominally, folk music. And, if you are wondering quite where Mr Care has got to, he maintains a quiet background simmer, emerging into the open, towards the end, with a gentle solo. And if this represents the more pastoral end of the Banter jam, the pairing of Seneca Square and Soldier’s Joy is the dancier end, with clattery drums and Care pumping like a good ‘un. Both well known tunes, the second gets introduced by some slinky hayrick fiddle before the rollicking box and piano combo is off on one again. Where’s the trumpet might be my only plea.

The Last Rose Of Summer adds a countryish ballad melody, by Zella, to replace the usual Irish tones of the early 18th century poem. Jolley and Care weave a little melancholic magic about each other, and around Zella’s heartfelt vocal. She plays the same trick for The Lass of Richmond Hill, another old song, the new melody an effervescent bubble of time signature skew-wiffery. The harmony vocals, never in your face, are an understated pleasure. Blimey, and more again for the next two, further Nina “remixes” of the tradition, this clearly her speciality. Below Below is the mermaid song; they like mermaid songs. A haunting melody, it will be a live highlight, with its proggy middle eight, as fiddle soars over the piano motif, with an acapella ending for good measure. Eve Of New Year Merry presents as an early carol, the Welsh Deck The Halls, apparently. With sleigh bells and, at last, the massed trumpet of Walker, the brass lifts the otherwise slender tune.

A change in style is probably due, so to hear Walker’s unaccompanied voice chime out for Torn Screen Door is quite the reset. A song by the Canada domiciled Scot, David Francery, his delivery is plangently likeable. Towards the end, Care and Jolley dive in to add some fiddle/box calisthenics to the vocal, ahead of leaving Walker to close it all up again, alone. This interlude warrants some return to feet on the dance floor, Morgan Rattler providing just that impetus. Care reminds us, yet again, if needed, how welcome his morris-inspired musical capers are. A brief trumpet and walking bass section gives a sort of mid-hurtle breather, it then firing off again, full pelt.

It takes bravery to try and better John Tams, especially in a song as wholesome as Lay Me Low. That bravery is rewarded with, perhaps, the album highlight. Some Hovis trumpet opening, and then Zella pulls out every ounce of yearning into her vocal. As the drums come in, so too comes the realisation they have done the doyen of Derbyshire proud. The trumpet is perfect, matching with Zella’s piano, and I can’t wait to hear this live. (And, of course Tams is one of their heroes credited on the album! All of ours, probably.)

Wondering whether or quite how Care might choose to commemorate his old buddy and partner in squeeze, Gareth Turner, who died last year, he does so with an eerie reprise of Turner’s Jake’s Jig, as present on Banter’s debut recording, as well as being a staple of Turner’s performances both with Little Johnny England and the Phil Beer Band. Care, solo, it edges in from the background, awash with echo, before taking a double tracked centre stage. Barely a minute and a half, before sneaking out the same way, if you know it, well, let’s just say you may need a hanky. I did. Exquisite.

This album feels a consolidatory one for Banter. Perhaps heavier on songs than dances, and with a little less of Walker and Care’s instrumental heft than my personal preference, it is undoubtedly going to alert them to a wider audience. Which can do no harm. Bring on the summer and let’s see and hear it all on stage! (With advance warning for their very own Banterfest, still five plus months away, but worth putting on the calendar. Or, woops, rather was……)

If you haven’t tickets, have this, Jake’s Jig, as a taster for the album, albeit the long version from Yes, 2017.

Banter online: Website / Facebook / X (formerly known as Twitter) / Instagram

Keep up with At The Barrier: Facebook / X (formerly Twitter) / Instagram / Spotify / YouTube