Alice Grace Quartet: “Weavers of Dreams” @ the Gala Theatre, Durham - May 27

(© Malcolm Sinclair)

Alice Grace (voice); Mark Williams (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums)

Posters for Ballet Cymru’s forthcoming adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream dominated the foyer at the Gala. But different dreams were on the menu for the midday May Gala audience – summoned up by the enthralling Alice Grace Quartet.

The programme promised “toe-tapping medium swing and stirring ballads” and we were not to be disappointed. After the gently swinging Nat King Cole ballad opener A Weaver of Dreams treated the audience to both her remarkable voice and the superb interplay of her band, Alice invited the audience to join in with voice and feet to the opening riff of the upbeat Horace Silver classic Sister Sadie. This had the audience engaged in every sense, although Sadie’s encounter with Alphonso Brown seems hardly the stuff of dreams. Both songs gave Alice the opportunity to feature her scat singing and Mark his solo dexterity.

The tempo (and temperature) came back down for Blame it on my Youth, another Nat Cole reference, for me the pick of the set. Alice’s voice was crystal clear, Mark’s solo had the audience entranced, Paul’s melodic solo and Abbie’s gently understated brushes added to the perfection. A pin could have dropped, so captivated was the audience.

(© Malcolm Sinclair)

Alice’s set-list revealed her influences, although the interpretation was always hers. Devil May Care, (Billie?), then the promised Ella tribute in Love me or Leave me, followed by a strong nod to Sarah Vaughan with If I Knew Then What I Know Now, the latter returning to the dream theme (and the beauty of hindsight) with the line “If I had only taken your dreams and made them part of mine”. More dreaming on Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Mercer’s I Thought About You (Miles, but also Ella again) with “Moon shining down on some little town, And with each beam, the same old dream”. And Nat Cole again with the “a little shy and sad of eye” Nature Boy, to conclude the set.

(© Malcolm Sinclair)

It’s difficult to say what was best about the music; Alice’s voice and vocalese, Mark’s exquisite guitar backing and intense solos, Paul’s melodic bass, or Abbie’s sensitive percussion. Or was it rather the interplay of these four accomplished musicians weaving their own musical tapestries? I missed Alice’s ‘old’ quartet when they first appeared at Durham’s (now closed) Empty Shop, but the current band made an impressive Gala debut and will be certainly enthusiastically welcomed back. For now the next concert is back to Midsummer (Midsummer’s Day, June 24) featuring two of today’s dream weavers in the Abbie  Finntet. Get your tickets now - it certainly won’t disappoint. Brian E