House of the Black Gardenia @ Hoochie Coochie - May 26

Elise Rana (vocals, washboard); Pete Tanton (trumpet); David Gray (trombone); Keith Robinson (reeds); Katja Roberts (violin); Elliott Rush (piano); Michael Littlefield (guitar, banjo, vocals); Neil Hopper (bass, sousaphone); Kit Haigh (drums)

Well this was a Hoochie first - the band started ahead of time! However, it didn't matter, the swing dancers were already on the floor primed and ready to Lindy Hop or Shag (the dance).

As such, this was a double header. Black Gardenia doing their thing on stage whilst, down on the dance floor the movers and shakers were doing their thing.

It was a fascinating scenario. Most of the dancers were dressed for the occasion, in fact one or two of the guys could have made my sartorially elegant friend and harmonica hot shot Ray Burns look as though he'd just put in a half shift on the assembly line at Nissan. 

The terpsichoreans were pretty damn good, one or to could have taken Fred and Ginger to a split decision whilst others (not many) brought to mind an old Jimmy Dorsey record - Arthur Murray Taught me Dancing in a Hurry!

But of course, entertaining as all this was, BSH was here for the music which was just about as good as it gets in this indefinable genre. It's jazz, it's swing, it's blues, it is music. 

We've heard Gray, Tanton and Robinson in many different settings and styles, I've yet to encounter one where they couldn't cut it. Rana plays washboard - you don't see many of them in Hoochie - and has a voice to match the 1930s era the band seek to recreate. Littlefield excels on guitar, does what people do on banjo and sings the blues like he was born on the south side of Chicago. Hopper, whether wearing a sousaphone or slapping the bass is at the core of the rhythm section alongside Haigh and Rush whilst Roberts' violin adds an additional texture.

The majority of the material was familiar to the fans although there were a couple of newer ones: Queen Witch and Ice Cream For Breakfast both quite brilliant.

Great stuff! Lance

The Mooche; The Mad Russian; Baby Don't You Tear my Clothes; You Rascal You; One in a Million; Why Won't You Tell me Why?; Ice Cream For Breakfast; Tin Roof Blues; Graveyard Shift; Ain't it Hard?; Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho; I Can't Take it no Longer; Viper Man; Evenin'