Socialising on a Sunday Afternoon @ Charts

Stu Collingwood (piano/vocal); Andy Champion (bass guitar); Sid White (drums) + Harry Keeble (tenor sax); Abbie Finn (drums).

(Review/photos by Lance)

When is a jam session not a jam session? Well, if you're at The Globe for the Wednesday Take it to the Bridge gig, it's a Workshop and, if you're down on the Quayside on a sunny Sunday afternoon at Charts, it's a Jazz Social. Still, what's in a name?

Today, down by the riverside and close to the Law Courts, justice was seen to be done by three repeat offenders. Every Sunday, these three converted sinners, preach the gospel according to St John Coltrane and other deities.

I missed the first set but arrived in time for the second which had the resident social workers kicking off with Stu crooning like Crosby on The Birth of the Blues. Nice one Stu but your piano solo aced it.

Abbie Finn was on drums for this set so it wasn't a surprise when Harry Keeble burst forth brandishing a menacing tenor saxophone. These two are a kind of musical Bonnie and Clyde as well as being Public Enemies Number One in the eyes of most other saxists and drummers at a jam!

All of Me more or less took the roof off, so much so that the dogwalkers down in the bar area had to do much coochie cooing to keep their pooches under control! Thank goodness Kevin Eland hadn't dropped by to blow a few top Cs!

There was a bossa which I didn't recognise. It may have been Jobim - they usually are - nevertheless, it was as good as any bossa which, these days, to me, is as relevant as The Charleston.

Stu made amends with a blistering There Will Never be Another You. My only reservation being the seemingly obligatory ewe/you joke that accompanies this great tune. It was an excellent version with Andy Champion still undefeated and Whitey's brushes painting a rhythmic picture that should be hung in The Louvre (memo to check spelling).

The audience that had drifted away during the interval were replenished with the arrival of two escapees who'd managed to tunnel their way out of Stalag Sage during a Glenn Miller tribute concert.

They made it just in time for Beautiful Love, Yardbird Suite, Wayne Shorter's mournful Infant Eyes and a blast on Billie's Bounce which brought the precedings to a magnificent close.

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon? Tell the jammers who wait patiently in the wings at the Black Swan and other jams to get their axes along and have a blow. It's a great place to set your stall out.

Lance.