Paul Edis (piano, vocals)
This week the Vietnamese branch of PEAS* upped sticks out of Saigon to the beach resort of Mūi Né...lucky for some. Meanwhile back in Ol' Blighty the rest of us were out and about dodging showers before settling down with a cuppa to watch and listen to week seventeen (!) of Paul Edis' Friday lunchtime live stream concert series.
How Deep is the Ocean? pondered pianist Edis. 12,100 ft, apparently (our host obtained the answer to the question thanks to an internet search engine). From Irving Berlin to Harold Arlen's Come Rain or Come Shine (in Ol' Blighty definitely rain and shine and yet more rain, probably too darn hot in Mūi Né) with Edis singing for the first and only time today. Edis thought the only time he'd played Jobim's Felicidade was as a duo with Alan Barnes. So, for a second time, Edis played it today as a solo piece.
John Lewis' elegant Skating in Central Park (Edis making reference to the Bill Evans-Jim Hall recording) oozed class, as did The Best Things in Life Are Free (written for the 1927 musical Good News). An 'in-the-style-of' original number - McCoin a Phrase - had been performed previously, Edis identifying one occasion as being a gig he played with the Sue Ferris Quintet at Newcastle's Bridge Hotel. BSH has reviewed at least one other Edis gig at which this composition was played (Darlington Jazz Club, October 2017) and at the time your reviewer took a stab at the title...McCoin a Phrase. The odds are that was, and is, an incorrect spelling! McCoyne? McCoy Tyner being the composer's inspiration, alternative suggestions as to the correct spelling of the title are welcome.
Cole Porter's I Concentrate on You prompted online comment about the tune's alternative titles...it's a musicians' thing. BSH Editor-in-Chief LL requested Blue Champagne. Edis confessed he was unfamiliar with the number...join the club! Jimmy Dorsey recorded it in 1941, Manhattan Transfer in 1975. Its inclusion in today's set list helped maintain Edis' proud record of not having repeated a number during seventeen weeks of lockdown performances. A question to those listening intently, at the end of the tune did Dr Edis quote Mean to Me?
Speaking of titles and their spelling...Coltrane-ing or Coltran-ing or, who knows? Some years ago this Edis composition was performed at a Lindy Hop gig! This afternoon we heard it played as a solo piano piece. Coltrane...Lindy Hop, why not?! The correct spelling of the title? Answers on a postcard! Two numbers left, Edis' Regret, followed by another Cole Porter tune, My Heart Belongs to Daddy. It had been another hour of great piano playing, more next week (one o'clock Friday).
* Paul Edis Appreciation Society.
Russell
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