Keith Stephen’s Hot Club Trio with Caroline Irwin & Steve Andrews @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. July 21

Keith Stephen (guitar), Roly Veitch (guitar & vocals), Bruce Rollo (double bass), Caroline Irwin (vocals) & Steve Andrews (clarinet & tenor saxophone) + Colin Aitchison (trumpet & vocals)

(Review by Russell).

Coquette, Exactly Like You (showcasing Caroline Irwin’s expressive vocal style), great tunes to start with, bandleader Keith Stephen and bassist Bruce Rollo first to step up. The latter number bright and breezy with reedsman Steve Andrews doubling on clarinet, then tenor. Irwin sang Walking After Midnight (Andrews featured once again). Hot clarinet covered the Andrews Sisters’ hit Bei Mir Bist du Schon, followed by Roly Veitch telling us What a Little Moonlight Can Do. Steve Andrews’ clarinet accompanied vocalist Irwin on I Get the Blues When it Rains (no chance!) and Wild Child Irwin ran amok on Running Wild concluding an excellent first set.

The interval. A Deuchars’ refill, a raffle ticket and in walked Hong Kong-based ex-pat trumpeter Colin Aitchison. The beer fine, raffle ticket a dud, CA in good form. Second set and Irwin set about Autumn Leaves in French. I ask you! What a girl! Miles playing it in Antibes (c.1965) was something, to hear a local lass singing the lyrics – in French – in the Black Bull was Desert Island Discs’ material! Our Far East visitor – Mr Aitchison – sat-in, standing alongside Andrews (tenor), on I Can’t Give You Anything But Love serenaded by Caroline Irwin.

The boys in the band took a spell (they went to the bar) leaving the stage to Steve Andrews and Blaydon Jazz Club’s Main Man Roly Veitch to craft a beautiful take on Skylark. The rhythm boys – slap bass maestro Bruce Rollo and six-string Hot Club kings Keith Stephen and Roly.Veitch  - whisked us off to ‘30s Left Bank Paris on China Boy, Cumbrian-based reedsman Andrews in the back seat of the Peugeot, as they careered along the Champs Elysées, Gallic-style. Irwin’s seductive French brought to life La Vie en Rose, then she went Cuckoo before regaining her sanity in time to hear Aitchison’s top trumpet (and convincing Satchmo vocals) calling Dr Jazz. Great stuff.

Next month – Sunday 18 August – don’t miss the incomparable Ruth Lambert with Giles Strong and Mick Shoulder and special guest, ace trumpeter Graham Hardy. Oh, by the way, take the chance to hear Colin at the Crescent Club this week, possibly Jesmond Legion and maybe the Marquis of Granby.  

Russell.