SOUNDS GREEN - THE ESSEX JAZZ COLLECTIVE

When hundreds of music lovers throng in the stately Botanic Garden not once but five times during the Cambridge Summer Music Festival, you know it’s going with a swing

It is a triple delight. Doors, so to speak, are at 6.15 which allows everyone to wander the wonderful walkways of the exquisite collection of some of the world’s most famous plants, crowded in here since Victorian explorers brought them back from distant lands. Charles Dawin has masses in there, but he is not on his own.Monsieur Bouganville with his great purple sprouting climber. Rosa Gigantic Burmese belongs to Cooper and even Forsyth with his ever favourite suburban front garden fixture Forsythia.and don’t forget Joseph Banks on the First Fleet to Australia with his imaginatively named giant spikes plant“Banksia’ .

Vasilis Xenopoulos. is the sensational saxophone player to lead the triumphant band laid on for the second week . They had a brilliant repertoire. And cool with it. Miles Davis’ Blue on Green was wonderful as was Chick Corea’s Festival. Jazz at its entertaining best. The players included a fabulous vocalist who gave us a brilliant Summertime, which is saying something as it might otherwise feel rather over done. People began dancing as the evening progressed and there was a skilful rendition of Dave Brurbeck’s Take Five , a brilliantly bold choice as it’s often avoided by musicians on account of its super-tricky rhythmic structure. Not for the Essex Collective. They are ambitious and accomplished every one of them. A very classy act for a hot summer night.