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| (© 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.
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| (© 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.
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| (© 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
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