Joe Pettitt's LP Swing Orchestra – as seen on Sky Arts and heard on BBC Radio 2 – returns to one of its favourite venues when it launches its new tour Frank & Ella in Eastbourne.
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00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspaper. It's always
00:06 fantastic to speak to Joe from the Len Phillips Swing Orchestra. Now you've got a fabulous
00:10 sounding show, a new show coming to Eastbourne on August 6th called Frankanella. Now any
00:17 particular Frankanella we have here?
00:19 Yeah, it's not Frank Bookshare from EastEnders.
00:23 I don't think you'd get the audience, would you?
00:26 No, that's not it.
00:27 What's the thinking of putting these two together?
00:32 Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald are just sort of two, well, personally, they're two
00:36 of my absolute favourites. So that's as good a reason for me as any, but for everybody
00:41 else...
00:42 What's it that they had that makes them favourites for you? What makes them so special still?
00:46 Well, I think if you hear something like every time you say goodbye, something like Ella
00:52 Fitzgerald sings it, it brings a tear to your eye. And that's really special, you know.
00:58 And that smile that's in her voice that lures you in. Oh, it's just gorgeous. And then Frank,
01:05 the sound of swing, the swagger, you know, that absolute gravitas that comes that I don't
01:15 think anyone gets close to really. I don't know if that's just because we think of all
01:18 the backstories of mafia bosses and whatnot, but it's there, isn't it?
01:22 You wouldn't dare dislike it.
01:24 No. And the arrangements. So when they're with a big band, you know, there's Nelson
01:30 Riddle, Billy May arrangements that you hear. They're just, they're second to none. Got
01:35 you under my skin. I think that's the best vocal arrangement ever written, ever recorded.
01:39 Frank's vocals, so many people tell you it's the phrasing that he got so right, that was
01:43 so distinct.
01:44 Yeah.
01:45 What do they think?
01:46 Absolutely. It's not a gorgeous voice, is it Frank Sinatra? But the swing and the phrasing
01:53 that's there, it's a great voice, don't get me wrong. But it's not like Nat King Cole.
01:58 But it's the phrasing that people talk about, the time, the rhythm that's there, the way
02:03 that he punctuates and articulates in a way that gets the rhythm into it. If you listen
02:09 to early Billie Holiday, if you can imagine Billie Holiday with Frank Sinatra's voice,
02:17 you'll hear where he got it all from, you see. If you think about listening to, or vice
02:21 versa, you know, if you listen to a Frank Sinatra and you hear Billie Holiday's voice,
02:26 and you can really hear that jazz inflection, that jazz time coming through in Frank.
02:31 Yeah, that sounds brilliant. And it's a really ambitious sounding show, because as you say,
02:35 we're not wanting to just offer impersonations and tributes. It's going wider, it's a much
02:40 bigger context for these two greats, isn't it?
02:43 Yeah, it's more of a gala type performance, if you like. It's a true celebration about
02:50 them and the scene that they were king and queen of, if you like. Rather than, yeah,
02:57 rather than sort of impersonations. It's not about that. The singers are coming on very
03:01 much as themselves, paying tribute to those people, but not as a tribute act.
03:08 Yeah. And let's not forget the band, the orchestra. How many pieces behind them?
03:12 Well, there's a 16-piece band plus myself. So there's 17 of us in total.
03:17 That's going to be a lovely sound. And how much are you touring this summer? You're doing
03:22 Eastbourne on, what was it, the 6th of August?
03:24 6th of August, that's right, yeah. So what we tend to do is, we love Eastbourne, and
03:30 we tend to come to Eastbourne first with our new show, sort of prove its worth. And then
03:35 we tour it the following year. So we've done this for the past couple of years. So we had
03:39 our 100 years of big bands, that was first acting at the Congress, and has gone on to
03:45 do loads and loads of dates all over the country. So we're hoping to do the same with this one.
03:50 So that's a really good approach. Your view is if Eastbourne likes it, then it's good
03:53 enough.
03:55 That's right. It's a tough crowd in Eastbourne. No, it's not that. But we've got great support
04:01 in Eastbourne. So it's always just, it's a lovely, lovely environment. It's really warm.
04:06 We feel really welcomed whenever we turn up there.
04:09 Well, I suppose that shows the virtue of building an audience in a place, isn't it, by coming
04:14 back?
04:15 Yeah, it was the first venue, when I took over running the Len Phillips Swing Orchestra
04:20 way back in 2010, it was a venue where I'd worked. And I knew Chris Jordan, the artistic
04:26 director from some other things that I'd been involved in. And so it was the first sort
04:30 of major venue that I decided that we should go to. And we stuck with it and built up an
04:35 audience in Eastbourne and sort of followed that model elsewhere since. But Eastbourne
04:39 feels like our sort of home venue.
04:41 Fantastic. A great place to start. Really lovely to speak to you, Joe. Thank you very
04:46 much indeed. August 6th, Eastbourne.
04:48 Brilliant, thanks.