Roly Veitch (gtr); Sue Ferris (ten/fl); Andy Champion (bs)
(Review and photo by Jerry)
As a lunchtime
jazz venue, The Gala is new to me: very new! A big, long room it needed to be
with almost all seats taken by an estimated 80-90 people), with bright lights,
shiny chrome, and laminate floors. For all the glass and laminate, the
acoustics are actually very good and the jazz served up was excellent.
The line-up was
visually reminiscent of John Cleese “looking down on” the Two Ronnies with
Andy, on the left, towering over Sue, in the middle, who didn't “tower” but
still out-topped Roly! To be fair to Roly, he was sitting down! Solos for all in the opener, All of Me, set the tone and showed that, musically, all were equal
here! Beautiful Love featured an
excellent bass solo which made me think of Rondo
alla Turca (don’t know why!) and There
Will Never Be Another You brought
vocals from Roly and some nice interplay between guitar and sax.
My Romance had
foot-tapping sax and subtle guitar (not bad for one weaned, according to the
programme notes, on Hank Marvin!) but struck me most for the Lorenz Hart lyrics
in which he rejects all the clichés and handy love-song rhymes – moon, lagoon,
month of May, hideaway – to assert that all he needs is “you”. Clever stuff, a
cut above most lyricists post-1950 and one of the delights, today, of listening
to such a fine selection of standards. “Fine” (and also with excellent lyrics)
describes their next treat: Kern / Hammerstein’s All the Things You Are.
Bonfa’s bossa
nova, Manha de Carnival/A Day in the Life
of a Fool illustrated, for me, how the whole mood of a composition can be
changed by the instruments on which it is played. I know this tune best as “Black Orpheus” and have always heard it
with trombone taking the lead. With no drums, with mellifluous, skipping flute
instead of lugubrious trombone and with a galloping bass solo thrown into the
mix, it is altogether lighter: A Day in
the Life of a HAPPY Fool as opposed to The
Tears of a Clown.
Then, aptly, we
had Autumn Leaves (which I was trying
to brush up this morning) during which I was craning my neck to see who was
“brushing” the drums during the bass solo: it was Roly, oh-so-gently strumming
in a most un-Marvinlike way!
The Sinatra
favourite, In the Wee Small Hours
brought gentle vocals and lyrical flute – a beautiful rendition of Sinatra’s
“sublime”. The blues, Sandu, closed
the set with rasping sax and foot-tapping solos, after which time had flown to
the extent that none was left for us to Look
for the Silver Lining (number 10 on the programme) – but we needed no
consolatory advice: it had been great!
Jerry.
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