Live streaming Christmas with the Ronnie Scott's All-Stars - Dec. 10

James Pearson (piano, Fender Rhodes, vocals); Sam Burgess (double bass, vocals); Chris Higginbottom (drums, vocals); Alex Garnett (tenor sax, vocals): Polly Gibbons (vocals)

It's that time of year. Tinsel time. Ronnie Scott's has a Soho rent to pay, how it'll be found in these pandemic times is anyone's guess, one thing's for sure, put on a Christmas show (two houses, several nights a week) and the punters will turn out. And turn out they did.

James Pearson has a plum job - MD at Ronnie Scott's. Kudos yes, but with it comes the responsibility of helping to keep the place solvent. The house trio has to be A-list and it is: Pearson, piano, Sam Burgess, bass, Chris Higginbottom, drums, this evening joined by Alex Garnett, tenor sax and vocalist Polly Gibbons fronting the whole shebang.  

I'll be Seeing You, Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams - songs for these pandemic times! But hey, these were upbeat numbers, Polly Gibbons saw to that. Dynamic, energetic, fearless, quite simply a darn good singer. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (it's that time of year), a Gibbon's arrangement of Cole Porter's Anything Goes, 'made better' said Gibbons by Pearson's rearrangement of her arrangement (!), Sing Sing Sing (Gibbons imploring the audience not to sing, this was to be Higginbottom's moment in the Frith Street spotlight), this was the All-Stars giving the punters what they wanted...a good time.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (earlier in the evening Emma Fisk beat them to it - see LL's review) with a fleeting quote - George Benson? - and onto some seasonal gospel with the boys in the band providing the backing vocals. As Gibbons exited the scene MD Pearson switched into MD-mode thanking one and all as the band took it out riffing on Birdland.                                                         

Russell