James
Harrison (keys/accordion); Alice Grace (vocals); Will Howard (tenor sax/clarinet);
Keith Peberdy (bass); Russ Morgan (drums).
(Review by Ron H)
Back
in 2010, Tees Hot Club organised a jazz night at Dormans Club in Middlesbrough –
they hoped it would catch on. Now, nine years on and approximately 450 sessions later, the general consensus of opinion is that it has ‘caught
on’!
The
audience that crowded the room for a special celebratory night certainly
thought so as they were treated to a fantastic night of music and
entertainment.
A more relaxed Softly As In A Morning
Sunrise, followed, again with Alice's lovely singing blending in with
fine musicianship before moving up a notch to a swinging Blue
Skies.
An exciting Latin number Mambo
Inn, featured Russ, showing his great skills on drums. James and Alice
performed Honeysuckle Rose, as a duo to great effect.
Alice, singing the classic Georgia on
my Mind, with a lovely tenor solo from Will and keyboard work from James,
went down well before the band followed with a swinging Bye Bye Blackbird, and
a great bass solo from Keith.
The first set was brought to a close in
cabaret style with Bei Mir Bist Du Schon, great showmanship
from James on accordion, Will on tenor and Alice's singing.
Shiny Stockings, featuring Alice (Ella style) and Will on tenor started
the second set then James played a dramatic and rousing version of Caravan, with
great sax and vocals.
Blossom Dearie's Moonlight Saving Time,
and Wonderful World, contrasted with the great gypsy jazz
anthem Dark Eyes, featuring James, again, on accordion and Will on clarinet.
I Can't Give You Anything But Love, was played and sung in fine style after which the
audience demanded an encore that resulted in some fine scat work from Alice
including mimicking trumpet and trombone with the band playing Parker's
swinging Billie's Bounce, that seemed to evolve into
Monk's Well You Needn't, (I think?).
This was an excellent night of entertainment
from first class jazz musicians with one of the best Ella Fitzgerald influenced
singers around to celebrate our nine years of jazz events at Dormans with
the aptly named Playhouse Band.
Again, many thanks to the generous
support for all these years given to us from Dormans Club.
Ron H
YouTube link from James Nesbitt - Secret Love.
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