Jam Session @ the Jazz Café - Oct. 16

(Review  by Ron A)

What can I say about last night? no not the jam session, but BSH receiving that well deserved Parliamentary Award is a fantastic achievement.

When the news of it was told by Paul, the whole of the Jazz Café gave a thundering round of applause. Brilliant!!!!!

Now for the Jam Session.

The session opened with the house trio of Bradley Johnson (guitar); Paul Grainger (bass), and Rob Walker (drums)  once again setting a very high bar with Polka Dots and Moonbeams, Love For Sale, and How Insensitive.

Bradley displaying once again that it doesn’t get much better than that. Absolutely wonderful guitar playing backed by a more than able Bass and Drums.

This was followed by George Sykes' full sounding tenor playing On the Sunny Side of the Street, and Their Will Never Be Another Ewe (as the love-struck sheep said)' Apologies for that.

The mellow tones of Neville Hartley (yes jamming again on trombone!) joining George for the latter number. Neville then followed with a beautiful version of Body and Soul a big favorite of mine.

Time for the vocalists now and on came Debra Milne giving two very nice renditions of Caravan and You Go   To My Head, accompanied by Hazem Mohammed on drums  with Bradley and a very able new comer on Bass called Lewis ? (but did not get his surname)

Next vocalist was Kyira Ki, a student in the City, who maintained the high standard set by all this evening, beautifully singing two more of my favorite tunes - Theme from Black Orpheus and Lullaby of Birdland. She was a first timer at the jam session lets hope she isn't too long in coming back. 

The jam session would not be complete without Niffi Osiyemi giving us wonderful versions of Love Me or Leave Me and Gee Baby ain't I Good To You. Always a pleasure to hear Niffi!

One musician who always seems to set alight the Jam Session (with respect to all the other musicians) came on next and that was David (Showtime) Gray on trombone. He was joined by Marcus on Piano, George Sykes on Tenor and Hazem Mohammed on drums and it was  lift off with a very rhythmic full sounding version of Red Clay and an extremely funky (for want of a better word) tune called Tutu (Simplified) .A tune I had never heard of but suspect it was a self composition because David was handing sheet music out before they played it. Fortunately the roof remained on the Jazz Café but only just despite the difficulty of not quite getting to a suitable ending in unison.

Neville Hartley joined the lineup once again on Take the A Train with his mellow tones complementing David's playing (and visa versa of course), with wonderful solos by all.

The session ended with Misty played by Neville and David on trombone.  A delightful rendition with the exchanges between them to be savoured.

Yet again another fantastic Jam Session at the Jazz Café. Upholding the fact that we as a listener are very lucky in the north east to have so many great musicians here.

 Ron A.

Please note that Paul Grainger announced that future jam sessions are now being held in 'The Black Swan' starting 30th October 2018. From what I understand the Jazz Café is going to be run by the people who currently have the 'Prohibition Bar' relocating.