Debra Milne (Vocal) Stevie
Glendinning (Guitar) Paul Grainger (D. Bass) Rob Bates (Drums).
(Review by
Kath Jobes).
A new venue for Jazz in Durham proved to be a little gem! Parking was ‘fun’ on the steep and narrow
Crossgate Peth just up from Framwellgate Bridge… and finding the venue could
have been tricky had it not been for one
of the Musicians being outside for a ‘breath of fresh air’! I was quickly ushered up the stairs and into
an intimate and unpretentious bar area to meet up with a small group of
musicians and friends who led me into a larger room, set up for a night of two
and a half sets of entertaining Jazz…
The first set commenced with a Milne/Glendinning
tribute to the greatly missed Keith Crombie in the form of The Jazz Café Song, quickly followed by a lively Devil May Care. The next tune, Midnight Sun by Lionel Hampton, lyric by Johnny Mercer was new to
the repertoire but beautifully sung by Debra Milne with a lovely instrumental
interlude, followed by Horace Silver’s Pretty
Eyes. Don’t Come Round Here Anymore exhibiting the versatility of Mr Paul
Grainger on Double Bass with a most agreeable solo. I hesitate to say ‘nice’ …
but it was!
The next number, Equinox by John Coltrane,
began with a drum and double bass intro, joined by the skilful
playing of Stevie Glendinning on Guitar, boy can that guy make it sing! A sprightly Billie’s Bounce celebrated the talents of this tight quartet, and
the scat from Debra along with solos from Stevie and Paul were truly
delightful; What was even more captivating was the seamless segue into the
George Michael number – Faith. An original by the Milne/Glendinning
song writing duo – Stay… what a
charming tune, with a superb solo from Stevie, supported as ever by the solid
rhythm section. The final number of this
first set was more Horace Silver - Signor Blues.
The second set opened with an original (and
beautiful) song, Show Me the Man. Miles Davis’ Four
brought forth a grand set of 4’s including some scatting from the talented Debra and
she excelled as she took on the Gershwin tune, It Ain’t Necessarily So. A cool Betty Carter number - Tight, progressed
nicely into Just You, Just Me with a
vocalize section written by Milne cleverly integrated into the tune. Temptation
was tremendous and the instrumental Stella
by Starlight, simply stunning … what a tight unit this trio is!
A call went out to the audience, “any Jones’ in
the house” and yes … there was Dan… so an amusing take on the song, Have you met (Miss) ‘Dan’ Jones resulted
in a huge round of applause. Dusty Springfield ’s Spooky was groovy as was the next number
with words written by Debra to the Benny
Golson tune - Killer Joe… and renamed ‘Relax’. Another poignant original, Blame Game, was followed by the ballad Save Your Love For Me. The set closed with Duke Ellington’s Caravan… after a debate about tempo…
which made little difference - as we all know that as a Caravan goes downhill
it gathers speed!
After a short break, the final short set was initiated by an instrumental, Midnight Voyage and Debra re-joined the trio for How Insensitive and a sassy, It Don’t Mean a Thing to end… but the
crowd, which had grown over the course of the evening were begging for more… so
an encore followed… No More Blues…
and yep there was no way anyone could be blue after that!
Kath J.
No comments :
Post a comment