These Boots Are Made For Singing - Jazz Café Sampler @ Black Swan Bar and Venue, Newcastle

Peter Gilligan (pno); Paul Grainger (bs); Yuya Honami (dms) + Stu Finden (ten); Fi Finden (vcl); Tom Lapworth (gtr); David Gray (tmb); Claire Kelly (vcl); Paul Gowland (alt); Lindsay Hannon (vcl).

(Review by Lance/photo by Mike Tilley).

If Hot Sardines and Kurt Elling hadn't been on at Sage Gateshead next week this would have been well in the running for Gig of the Month! As it is, Kurt and the Sardines have it all to do - bit like Newcastle, Sunderland and Hull!

The choice of the Black Swan bar was a good one enabling a decent sized crowd to be comfortably seated whilst enjoying one of the top trios around. Gilligan, Grainger and Honami laid the groundwork for the guests and did it with their usual panache. Sam Rivers' Beatrice, Roy Hargrove's Strasbourg St. Denis and Bru's Blue Rondo À La Turk set the scene.
Entré les deux Findens. Booted and spurred on by tenorman Stu, Fiona posed the question - What is This Thing Called Love? then told us/him You Don't Know What Love is before revealing that My Baby Likes to Bebop. Stu does indeed! A chorus of Anthropology in the midst of his tenor solo the irrefutable evidence.

Tom Lapworth continues to make his presence felt in guitar circles and his take on How Insensitive wasn't insensitive at all. The Preacher was a blast and his sermon went down well with the congregation.

At first glance I thought Claire Kelly had been tattooed from the waist downwards but closer inspection revealed she was wearing a pair of psychedelic leggings and, of course, boots. Where are the fashion police when you need them?

Still, this wasn't the catwalk, and the jazz police gave the thumbs up to the very appropriate, You'd be So Nice to Come Home to (Claire's been in exotic climes for the past year or so). A great scat chorus then a belting Stormy Monday. No longer the ingenue, Claire's now a singer who can hold her own in any company - would have liked more.

David Gray took over for the next four which included the Godfather theme, Fiesta and, was it Jaco's The Chicken?

Paul Gowland played Have You Met Miss Jones? dedicating it to the late, and very much missed, Ray Truscott (see previous post). I'm sure Body and Soul also embodied Ray's spirit.

Confirmation swung like the proverbial despite some saxophone sickness that didn't stop the flow of ideas blossoming from the bell of the Conn Underslung.

Next up Lindsay Hannon.

Outside a siren could be heard - had the fashion police arrived? No - they were on their way to the Bigg Market where someone had reportedly been seen wearing a coat!

Lindsay, Booted (naturally), Gowned (exquisitely) and bewigged (bizarrely) took to the stage for There Will Never be Another You, Basin Street Blues and Mercy! Mercy! Mercy! with an assist from Paul Gowland on the latter number.

The lady was in good voice - how could she not be with her jazz wig (at least I think it was a wig) on.

How was it a jazz wig? Well, it was A Kind of Blue ...

Lance.