Mo The Magnificent @ The Chilli.

Mo Scott (vcl), Neil Harland (bs), Rod Sinclair (gtr).

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Dave Weisser (tpt/vcl), Jim Crinson (bs), Barrie Ascroft (pno), Eric Stutt (dms). + David Carnegie (pno), Harley Johnson (pno), Paul Gowland (ten).

The numbers were up on last week although not by quite as many as the Man U game on the bar's large screen TV.

Upstairs in 'The Jazz Room', the Mo Scott Trio turned in a scintillating performance that was in it's own Champion's League class.

Although Mo only sang one out and out blues, "Love Me Like a Man", each of the dozen or so standards that she sang were as impregnated with the blues as a stick of Memphis Rock.

From "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby" through to "Route 66" via "Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You" and "I Got It Bad", Mo's blues background came screaming through. This was the real deal.

Amidst it all, there was the tenderness of "But Beautiful", "Imagination", "God Bless the Child" as well as the belter that is "Come Rain or Come Shine".

There were others - "Love Me or Leave Me", "Exactly Like You", "Sit Right Down & Write Myself a Letter" and a nice take on "There Will Never Be Another You". Let's change the title of the latter song to "...... Another Mo."

Not that our girl stood alone. Rod's mildly amplified accoustic provided solid chording and his solo's were masterpieces in their own right. Likewise Neil, comfortable in the background, he compensated for the lack of a drummer with steady, yet imaginative, basslines as well as throwing the odd 32 bars in here and there.

It was a grand night for swinging.

Earlier, the Take It To The Bridge guys set the mood with "Beautiful Love", "Love For Sale" and Turrentine's "Sugar".

In the truncated set that followed Mo's magnificence, Paul Gowland blew up his usual storm on "Killer Joe" - David Carnegie sat in on piano. David was replaced by Harley for "Solar" which saw the night out.

It truly was a Killer Joe of a night or should that read Killer Mo?

Lance.