Mo Scott Band @ The Jazz Café - February 24

Mo Scott (vocals); Dave Dryden (guitar); Neil Harland (bass guitar); Paul Smith (drums).

(Review by Lance/Photo courtesy of Mike Tilley).

Jazz gig? Rock gig? Blues gig?

Yes to all three!

The genres drew from each other and merged.

Mo shouts the blues like a woman 3 times her size (to be a blues mama you've gotta tip the scales at, at least, 20 stone) but she can also sing a ballad like the slender chick that she is and when it comes to rockin', Mo's your first call for a Saturday Night Fish Fry.

Well, as it was only Friday, there weren't no fish frying but there was a whole lot of cookin' on stage.

It had been awhile since I'd last heard Mo and, I suppose I felt a bit blasé about the whole affair. Lots of time spent setting up. Jacks plugged in here, others unplugged there. Where was the roadie? the sound engineer? the singer?

Mo was all three!

The Empress T-Bone Walkered us with Let Your Hair Down Baby before going into Hound Dog. The engine room were firing on all cylinders, Dave Dryden, a new name to me, - well he would be, he's from Stokesley which is somewhere south of Stockton but, alternating between red Strat and white Strat, he did his hometown proud - perhaps, one day they'll put up a blue(s) plaque in his honour, Neil Harland is a familiar and formidable figure across the music scene and never more so than when wielding his 1962 Fender Jazz back of Mo.

Paul Smith personifies power drumming. Big band, small band, any band, he drives it like few can.

Ry Cooder's Don't Make Your Move Too Soon; a frenetic version of Fever; Billie Holiday; Nina Simone; Stevie Ray Vaughan and Muddy Waters coupled with a sizzling instrumental brought the first set to a close. The room was full and we all knew why - class!

It's not just the voice - and what a voice! - it's also the stage presence, the terpsichorean-like movements of her hands, and the ability to work a room.

Sadly, because of the later start, I only caught a couple of numbers in the second set. Russell tells me The Good Times Rolled until 11:40pm by which time I was saying farewell to the number 27. It had been a good old wagon...

It had also been quite a night.

Lance.