Dixie Mix JAZZ BAND

The Best of Barber, Bilk & Ball 

Saturday 13th April 2024, 7.30pm,
St. Botolph’s Church, TRUNCH

Three of the greatest and most popular British trad jazz bands were led by trombonist Chris Barber, clarinetist Asker Bilk and trumpeter Kenny Ball.

Each came to fame in the late 1950s, just in time to be part of the British trad jazz boom that was at its peak during 1960-64. Each had hits on the pop charts (Barber’s version of Sidney Bechet’s “Petite Fleur,” Ball’s “Midnight In Moscow,” and Bilk’s “Stranger On The Shore”) and all three musicians continued leading bands for decades after the trad boom busted with the arrival of the Beatles.

The DixieMix Jazz Band, one of the UK’s most engaging and successful jazz ensembles, is returning to TRUNCH CONCERTS to open the 2024 season.

After their very successful concerts at St.Botolph’s in 2022 and 2023, the feedback was amazing: “A wonderful night’s music and entertainment that we are reliving again and again…”. “Congratulations on a very successful evening’s entertainment, for me personally it brought back many happy memories…”. 

The band is a professional six piece, excelling with fresh arrangements of many jazz favourites. With the best jazz musicians in East Anglia, enthusiasm for traditional jazz and great humour, the DixieMix has gained national recognition, leading to a tour with Rod Stewart, TV appearances and multiple festival and theatre gigs.

Dixie Mix: 
Simon Nelson – cornet, trumpet, flugel horn and vocals
Chris Wigley – trombone and vocals
Karl Wirrmann – clarinet, alto sax, tenor sax
Guest pianist – Simon Brown

Kevin West – banjo, guitar, ukulele
John Benson – bass and vocals
Tony Wilkins – drums and vocals

The concert will take  place in  St. Botolph’s Church in Trunch. With a licensed bar. 
It’s good practice to wear face masks all the time, except when you are eating or drinking.  
The number of places is limited. Pre-booking only. Tickets: £15 – adult, £7 – children.

Tickets are available by phone 01692 402 624 or cash only at The Crown at Trunch (Front Street, Trunch, North Walsham NR28 0AH).

Proceeds will be donated to Trunch and Swafield Church restoration projects.


 

François PINEAU-BENOIS (Paris) 
Violin recital

Paganini and Bach

Saturday 4th May 2024, 7.30pm,
St. Botolph’s Church, TRUNCH

Paganini’s Caprices are widely considered as the most difficult pieces ever written for the solo violin. A beautiful, famous cycle with an enormous arsenal of technical delights.
With his Caprices Niccolò Paganini set out to fascinate the audience and play the kind of music that people had never experienced before. As a young talent Niccolò had shocked and enraged the public by imitating animals using his violin and in the Caprices he elaborated on that earlier experimentation. Birdsong, hunting horns, laughter, donkeys – they were all brought to life through his instrument. Above all Paganini’s caprices are full of drama. Calm and moving passages interchange without warning with fiery, almost violent passages.

For François Pineau-Benois it is not the technical aspects of the music, but exactly that enormous variety in the musical characters, the extraordinary sound landscape, and the fantasy and lyricism that has amazed him all his life and has been an inspiration for this concert. In addition to Paganini, François also will be playing  One Sonata and One Partita by J.-S. Bach. The 2nd Partita is widely known for its Chaconne, considered one of the most masterly and expressive works ever written for solo violin. 

Violinist of the new generation François Pineau-Benois, nicknamed by the international press “French virtuoso”, entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP) at the age of 14. He holds master degrees in violin and chamber music from the CNSMDP and also studied with Régis Pasquier at the Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot. 

François is a laureate of competitive career grants from the Adami (2023), «Culture moves Europe» EU individual mobility grant (2023), the Fondation Banque Populaire and Safran pour la Musique (2017) as well as of the prizes from several competitions: the First Prize (duo) at the International Pro Musici Competition (2019, Paris), the Grand Prix of the International Alexander Glazounov Competition (2017, Paris), the Grand Prix Ciboure of the Ravel Academy (2015, Saint-Jean-de-Luz), the Young Artist Award of the International Leopold Mozart Competition (2013, Augsburg) and others.
A musician with an exceptional sound, he has been invited to play with renowned musicians such as François-René Duchable, Régis Pasquier, Roland Pidoux and young musicians in France, Belgium, Russia, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Israel, United Kingdom, Austria.  
François Pineau-Benois plays the historic Italian violin (XVIII) “Le Genève” of French virtuoso of the beginning of XXth century Lucien Durosoir, graciously lent by the Foundation Musicians between War and Peace. He is professor at the Rachmaninoff Conservatory in Paris.

The concert will take  place in  St. Botolph’s Church in Trunch. With a licensed bar. 
It’s good practice to wear face masks all the time, except when you are eating or drinking.  
The number of places is limited. Pre-booking only. Tickets: £15 – adult, £7 – children.

Tickets are available by phone 01692 402 624 or cash only at The Crown at Trunch (Front Street, Trunch, North Walsham NR28 0AH).

Proceeds will be donated to Trunch and Swafield Church restoration projects.