(Review/PHOTOS courtesy of Jerry)
The duo was MD, Paul Edis on flute and Ben
Lawrence on piano doing a “stripped-down” version of Stella by Starlight. There was a lot of flute tonight with the
presence of a young flautist, Dominic Bramley, in the band and with the MD
fronting a couple more tunes later. Even younger than Dominic was (presumably
brother?), Jerome Bramley, on trumpet. Not sure if either were debutants as I
could not get tickets for the band’s last gig so they were definitely new to
me. Well done to both!
Also new to me were tonight’s two vocalists,
Mia Campbell and Glenn Miller (!) who gave us three songs each. Third on the
set-list (you have to get it in early, said Edis, otherwise people think you’re
reviewing yourself!) was The Best Is Yet
to Come, followed swiftly by Come Fly
with Me. I always think it’s a risky strategy taking on Sinatra songs but
Miller really pulled it off: the voice, the timing, the delivery were all such
that you could just close your eyes and imagine… In the second half, he had me
singing along to For Once in My Life (very
quietly singing along, as I’m sub-karaoke standard at the best of times!). Not
to be outdone, Mia quickly got over some initial butterflies and got up to full
power (and hers is some voice!) on It
Could Happen to You. In the second half we had power and soul on Alright, OK, You Win – more Aretha
Franklin than Peggy Lee, and none the worse for that! Her final number for the
evening was At Last, again with a
soulful, gospelly feel – more Etta James
than Beyonce! Behind the vocalists, the band sounded great on all six numbers.
The evening had opened with Take the A-Train which featured a
trumpet solo from Callum Mellis and a rousing finish with trumpets ringing out
against a fog-horn like bass trombone. How much extra depth of sound this
instrument gives to a band was evidenced all night. An Edis “yet-to-be-famous”
original If It Ain’t Broke… (new to
me) was next up, featuring solos from trumpet, trombone, sax and both guitars
(Owen Jones and Thomas Henery - both of whom I thought I recognised, along with
James Metcalf on trumpet, from Jambone / EarlyBird. Sadly, but inevitably,
there will be more departures here, in time).
There was another original, When All Is Said and Done, featuring
Robert McBlane on sax and Thomas Henery, again, on guitar. A Narrow Escape, reminiscent of a TV adventure theme, according to
its composer, featured an excellent drum solo from another young musician –
Maeve Thorpe - and closed the set with an exclamation mark of a snap-ending.
The second half instrumentals included two
arrangements by Pete Cook, one of the MD’s tutors in London: Gershwin’s It Ain’t Necessarily So and
Bacharach/David’s heart-tugging Alfie.
Then it was spangly hats on in the trumpet section and major input from the
saxes on Miller’s A String of Pearls.
And finally – featuring Robert McBlane again – a rousing version of Baker Street with its unmistakable
saxophone riff. This, to me, is like a vocalist doing Sinatra but, as with
Glenn earlier, our soloist carried it off with aplomb.
I look forward to the next gig which, I
think, will be back at The Gala Theatre later this year. See Bebop Spoken Here
for details.
Jerry
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