Mia Webb & Roy Willis @ New Ship Inn, Cleadon – July 14

Mia Webb (vocals); Roy Willis (guitar); Colin Aitchison (muted trumpet, vocals); Franco Valussi (clarinet); Neville Sarony (vocals)

(Review by Ann Alex)

I’d finally made it to this gig which takes place quite near to my home in South Shields and I wasn’t disappointed. And there was the added bonus of meeting Lance’s friend Colin, over from Hong Kong, who is a BSH legend. Ms Webb is a very talented and experienced vocalist, Roy Willis was superb on guitar, then there was the added pleasure of a smooth, liquid clarinet, Colin’s rich, lively trumpet and also a song or two from Neville Sarony, (also visiting from the Orient) who has a fine tenor voice. I was a bit puzzled by the use of a backing tape of piano bass and drums, which the band could well do without, as they have enough skill without any assistance, but the tape didn’t detract too much from the enjoyment.

I entered the bar to improvisation on St Louis Blues from trumpet, clarinet and guitar, then came Undecided, which they said they were undecided about playing. Up steps our lady singer with a smoothly sung Satin Doll and clarinet and trumpet in harmony, followed by the instruments only on Basin Street Blues. I spotted two future jazz fans standing in the corner looking quite interested, two small girls in football strips, in honour of young Bradley whose death has been in the news this week.

 Mia continued with a string of jazz standards, Better Than Anything; Where Do You Start?; East Of The Sun; Devil May Care; One Note Samba (thank you, Mia, a favourite of mine because of the clever lyrics); Peel Me A Grape; Mambo Italiano (rarely heard in jazz, at least not by me). Then the band only for In A Mellotone (with call and response trumpet and clarinet).

Up steps Neville to tell us about Georgia (has she moved to Hong Kong to be his girlfriend?) followed by his version of Deed I Do. Mia took the stage again to tell us to Straighten Up And Fly Right (with a long guitar solo and lots of encouragement from our singer); then came It Don’t Mean A Thing, plus the verse, and lots of the ‘doo wah’ from trumpet; another Georgia, Sweet Georgia Brown; Alright, Okay, You Win (the audience helping out with the repetitions). Another of my favourites next, Hard Hearted Hannah. I remember first hearing this song when I was a child of 10, and I loved the reference to Hannah ‘pouring water on a drowning man’. Cruel Child. Finally, a relatively modern song, Watch What Happens, with trumpet and clarinet in lovely harmony.

As I said, a very enjoyable evening.

Ann Alex.