Jam Session @ The Jazz Café Sunday November 11

Pete Gilligan (pno); Ted Harbot (bs); Ray Burns (hca/acc); Debra Milne (vcl); Paul Gowland (ten); Mike Papapavlou, Kazumi Ishigaki and ? (gtr).

(Review by Lance.)

Ann may have been a little premature in thinking the jam had started at the Caff (see previous post) - it's definitely now an evening thing. And the roars from St. James' were more likely groans!

Nevertheless, it was a superb evening with Pete Gilligan back on keys (he looks like Hoagy Carmichael in a 1940's movie and plays a lot more piano!)

Besame  Mucho got  things moving  quite sedately with Ray Burns blowing harp and later accordion. I'll See You  in  my  Dreams  kept  everyone  awake  before  Paul  Gowland  took  centre stage with a wonderfully breathy  version of  Here's  That  Rainy  Day.  This was Hawkins/Webster/Rollins and PG did them justice. 

The keyboard PG (where was the double bass PG?) came into his own on Have You Met Miss Jones? Don Forbes arrived with trumpet and Papapavlou took over from the young  guitarist whose name I didn't catch. Ted Harbot, a new bass player on the scene, kept it all together. In the absence of a drummer his role suddenly became a pivotal one.

Don and Ted stepped down for Ornithology/How High The Moon. This truly was a journey into space by the PG's and MP. Bebop Lives! A blast on Blue Bossa then it was a vocal interlude by Debra Milne.  Four and Close Your Eyes were Debs' chosen pieces and she stamped them with her distinctive vocal signature including some good scat choruses.
And so it went on ...

Pav and Ish had a great work out on Yardbird Suite and Scrapple. Pete joined them for There Will Never Be Another You. Hymn to Freedom with les tout ensemble brought my evening's jazzing to a close - it had been a good one although there was much more to come.

Strangely, the absence of a drummer went nigh unnoticed!
Photos by Kaveh.

Lance