The April Showers' Jam session @ The Dun Cow - April 3

Paul Edis (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Rob Walker (drums) + Kay Usher (violin); John Rowland (tenor sax); Faye Thompson (alto sax); Roly Veitch (guitar) 

(Review by Russell)

Following hard on the heels of Tuesday's packed house with numerous sitters-in at the Black Swan events conspired to make Wednesday's monthly jam session at the Dun Cow a more cosy affair if not quite a damp squib. The house trio - Paul Edis, Paul Grainger and Black Swan jam session house drummer Rob Walker - set about rearranging the furniture...

One end of the Dun Cow was undergoing some sort of refit necessitating the temporary siting of the pub's pool table smack dab in the middle of the jam session's usual spot. What to do? The house trio moved tables and chairs from the conservatory space in order to set-up in time for an eight o'clock start. Would the sound be less than perfect? Would the pub's staff sort out the heating or would it be a winter overcoat night for audience and musicians alike? And the weather would have its say...

It was cold with numbers thin on the ground as Messrs Edis, Grainger and Walker made a start playing April in Paris (Jesmond). The proprietor of a fondly remembered (quality jazz) establishment on nearby Osborne Road arrived and in next to no time took the initiative seeing to it that the conservatory should be heated on a night such as this. Dun Cow staff put a shilling in the meter. 

Bassist Paul Grainger invited a togged-up Kay Usher to play some jazz. Our violinist decided upon Undecided to which the house trio responded with feigned confusion...why couldn't Usher make up her mind? Ha! Ha! Night and Day kept the former Northern Sinfonia string player on the stand until reinforcements arrived in the form of John Rowland, Faye Thompson and Blaydon Jazz Club's Roly Veitch. 

Rowland took off his bicycle clips, assembled his tenor sax and called I Can't Give You Anything but Love. Our lugubrious cyclist hung around to offer Love for Sale at which point the rain began to fall. It wouldn't be long before the elements would play a part in proceedings. Alto saxophonist Faye Thompson, fresh from cutting it the previous evening at the Black Swan, upped the tempo on Bag's Groove. Heads were nodding, feet tapping when pianist Edis looked up into the conservatory's rafters. The now torrential rain (April showers!) began to seep through the roofing. Water dripped onto Edis' keyboard. Water + electricity = potential disaster. Our pianist played on, along the way quoting Singin' in the Rain. Guitarist Veitch braved the elements and the next few numbers found the audience with an ear cocked to the cookin' jazz and an eye on the unfolding drip-drip drama up above. Your correspondent's notes became a tad smudged - the rain was finding alternative points of entry! 

Was that September (April) in the Rain? Everything Happens to Me? It had been a funny old night and the oddest thing...the Black Swan session had opened with Four and this Dun Cow session closed with Four. Now there's a thing!   

Russell