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| (© Jeff Pritchard) |
Always a popular performer here at the Railway, Steve opened the show with a fine version of Like Someone in Love and followed this with another well known standard Stella By Starlight - a tune I thought got played too often in recent times but mainly by alto players and pianists. Steve sometimes brings an alto sax to his gigs but tonight he concentrated on the larger horn to good effect. He has a fluent boppy style and, as I have mentioned in previous reviews, he reminds me a lot of the great Harold Land, a very underrated tenor man.
The regular Railway jazz fans were out in force tonight but there were also a few unfamiliar faces and one of the regulars, during an after the gig chat, told me he rated the performance 12 out of ten!
I thought that there were certainly some highlights that deserved that rating. The Neal Hefti tune Flight of the Foo Birds written for the Count Basie Band and scaled down to quartet size to suit Steve’s concept was most surely one of them.
I also rated very highly the ballads, particular the Mal Waldron composition Soul Eyes helped along by some tasty brushwork from drummer Phil Bennett and solid basswork from Ollie Collins, a newcomer to the Railway, but a welcome addition to the list of bass players who play this venue.
Andrzej Baranek had to cope with some tricky tunes including three of Steve’s originals but he did a superb job and I believe he is the featured artist with the Steve Oakes Band who are at the Railway on Tuesday July 5. Mike Farmer
Like Someone in Love; Stella by Starlight; Take That as a no; Pryllic; Soul Eyes;When by Now; Giant Steps; Flight of the Foo Birds; Darn That Dream; Blues For Alice; Blue in Green.
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