(Review/photo by Russell/Collage & Quartet photo courtesy of Brian Ebbatson)
Ruth Lambert has few if any
pretenders to her crown as the supreme interpreter of the Great American
Songbook. The Cullercoats-based singer works with the best of them and this
Gala Theatre engagement found her in A-list company. Pianist Paul Edis, fresh
from gigging in Glasgow the previous evening, short-notice dep bassist Neil
Harland and sought-after drummer Russ Morgan were on duty for a one hour,
lunchtime masterclass.
The Gala's top floor studio space
welcomed yet another capacity audience as Lambert opened her vocal masterclass
with No Moon at All - succinct introductory solos from Edis
and Harland with a concise round of fours, this was going to be good! Ms
Lambert revealed she was battling a sore throat - we wouldn't have known! - as
she ascended high, then higher again on Hoagy's Skylark. Cole
Porter's You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To showcased Edis'
stupendous piano playing followed by Lambert's take on Harold Arlen's I've
Got the World on a String - quite simply, you couldn't find a better
example of an innate sense of swing.
West Coast Blues is a favourite of
Lambert...good, any time! Edis and Harland stepped up on Bob Dorough's Devil
May Care but, boy-oh-boy, Russ Morgan's pillar-to-post surging brushes
were something else!
Lambert the composer contributed two
numbers - a mid-set A Love That Never Dies and the
set-closing Mr Wonderful - which Messrs Edis, Harland and
Morgan executed with due care and attention. Hearing Ruth Lambert fronting a
big band (the Customs House Big Band) or, as on this occasion, singing in small
combo company is one of the joys of gig-going. 
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