Paul Edis (piano, vocals)
Strike Up the Band commanded George Gershwin and so began today's 'Lockdown Live' lunchtime set by Paul Edis. YouTube the platform, pianist Edis the performer, no fewer than eleven tunes this sunny Friday afternoon with PEAS* members looking in from near (sunny Ashington, Gateshead and Newcastle) and far (rainy season Saigon).
The first of two vocal numbers - Sammy Fain and Paul Webster's Secret Love - continued the one hour piano masterclass. If there was a remake of Calamity Jane who would play the Doris Day role and would Dr Edis be cast riding shotgun on the Deadwood Stage? From the wonderfully ridiculous, technicolor Wild West to the prodigiously talented Michel Petrucciani. French pianist Petrucciani died way too young (your reviewer caught him in concert at the Jazz Cafe, Camden in a triple bill with, if memory serves, John Scofield and Tommy Smith) and today's selection - Looking Up - was a request by Colin Muirhead. Be sure to log on to Colin's Jazz on the Tyne programme at: www.capne.org (Saturdays, noon and Wednesdays 9:00pm for a quick repeat) broadcasting from Hive Radio's Jarrow studio.
Bill Evans' Very Early (Edis is a fan of fellow pianist Evans), another Colin Muirhead request, this time for My Foolish Heart (Victor Young/Ned Washington) with our host taking the opportunity to plug and praise Jo Harrop and Jamie McCredie's recently released album Weathering the Storm which includes a sublime version of the GASbook number, followed by a 'guess the composer' tune...Make Me Rainbows. Any ideas (it won't help but Edis briefly quoted Satin Doll)? Dr Google came to the assistance of one YouTube watcher...John 'Johnny' Williams (of Star Wars fame and, undoubtedly, fortune). At its conclusion Edis glanced at a screen: Ah, Dr Google, that's cheating! said our London lockdown performer in the middle of his fourteenth consecutive weekly Friday live stream set.
Baroque contrapuntal keyboard brilliance framed Miles' Solar, the kind of playing that elicits cheers at high-octane jam sessions (remember them?), Lerner and Loewe's Almost Like Being in Love. These Foolish Things (comp. Jack Strachey/lyrics Holt Marvell - thanks to Dr Google) offered Edis a second opportunity to sing a number and the love theme continued with There is no Greater Love (comp. Isham Jones/lyrics Marty Symes) with another sleight-of-hand quotation thrown in for good measure, this time I'm Beginning to See the Light. Today's session (hard to believe it was week number 14!), with our exiled north-eastener in playful mood throughout, drew to a close with Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields' On the Sunny Side of the Street. More next week, one o'clock sharp.
* PEAS = Paul Edis Appreciation Society.
Russell
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