Yes, I know the subject of this Thread is billed as Birmingham Jazz, but I've just returned from Jazz-a-matazz at the Westwood Club in Coventry - a frequent destination each Sunday lunchtime - with a warm, contented glow lit by two hours of musical excellence provided by Richard Exhall and his Shooting Stars, who have been periodic visitors to Sutton Coldfield Trad Jazz Club.
And, while claiming no technical know-how, expertise or judgement I would say that this band of superb musicians could grace any stage in the world before any appropriate audience and charm them just as they charmed our small gathering of jazz/swing lovers.
Exhall, a Chris Barber Big Band reeds man for many years, is able to call on colleagues with a similar pedigree, including Amy Roberts, one of the UK's finest, younger soloists as a guest star. Amy, in her mid-twenties, has been among the British Jazz Rising Stars awards, on the flute, on two or three occasions, and plays as pure-toned an alto sax as you'll hear anywhere.
Exhall, on tenor, started off Crazy About my Baby, followed up with If I had You and later concluded the first set with Nobody's Sweetheart Now, vocally a complicated love life... especially as the band added a dreamy, sauntering version of I'm Confessin' that I love you, and I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter.
My personal highlight was his rendering of the Nat King Cole mega-hit Mona Lisa, in which Amy displayed her hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck alto sound. This talented young woman switches with ease from alto sax to flute with which she twiddled her nimble figures around such standards as Bye, Bye Blackbird and Louis Armstrong favourite Struttin' with some Barbecue.
Along the way they spread their wings into different genres including a spot of R&B with Louis Jordan's Choo, Choo Ch'boogie and, strangely, an Elvis Presley vocal, the title of which I've forgotten since he was never on my personal radar.
I could go on, and on but I'll conclude by saying that I've enjoyed lots of gigs just as much over the years, but I'm not sure there have been many better.