Jairzinho, Pele, Carlos Alberto – Goal!!!! Nel Begley Trio @ The Gala Theatre Durham – August 29

© Malcolm Sinclair

Nel Begley (vocals); Paul Edis (piano); Luke Fowler (bass)

That 1970 headline was Brazilian and memorable: some of today’s lunchtime musical fare was Brazilian and all of it was memorable! Pleb that I am, I misheard the title Joãozinho Boa Pinta and immediately thought of football! Anyway, the Brazilian clearly appealed to Lance at the Black Swan last night and it went down well at The Gala too.

© Malcolm Sinclair

The aforementioned tune and Trem das Onze are both infectious sambas whose cheery music adds humour to the cynical, tragi-comic lyrics where love (true or otherwise) does not run smooth! Joãozinho rings an old flame and waxes lyrical hoping to rekindle something, only to find he’s rung the wrong girl! The speaker in Trem das Onze is having a grand time but has to leave apologising because he’s a “filho unico” (an only child) and his mother won’t be able to sleep if he misses the last train! In rapid-fire Portuguese I understood none of this but Nel Begley had sketched in the narrative for us in her intro and her performance made it all clearer: for her, a song is not just to be sung but to be performed. Body language and facial expression made it clear when the bomb dropped for Joao: “Não erro, não” (no, there’s a mistake, no!). P.S. I loved the “woo woo” ending to Trem das Onze!

© Malcolm Sinclair

There was a third, more roundabout, “Brazilian vibe” in Lennon and McCartney’s Fool on the Hill which came to us via Sergio Mendes. Beatles’ covers range from the sublime to the ridiculous: this was sublime and was graced with my favourite bass solo of the set and a very different delivery of the lyrics.

Which leads me to a scribbled comment in my notes - “need to see the lyrics”- which related to the deeply personal Nel Begley original, Small Flame. The music is beautiful: slow, reflective – filmic even – with quietly muted bass and melodic piano which was almost harp-like at the end but I could not catch the words. Not the singer’s fault – just my age-related deafness! I couldn’t find them online either which was a shame.

© Malcolm Sinclair

Earlier we had Lucky to be Me which featured a little bit of scat towards the end, Scat is a bit like Marmite and out of favour with some. I love Marmite! Just as well 'cos it was in almost every other number this lunchtime, demonstrating Nel Begley’s vocal dexterity, sometimes mirroring bass and piano, sometimes trading with them, always quick-fire and imaginative. On A House is not a Home it was great to revisit Hal David’s philosophical lyrics (A chair is still a chair / Even though there's no one sitting there) and a break-neck Cherokee culminated in a delightfully surprising, whisper quiet ending!

Social Call was a new song to me and I kind of worried it might end with this “incidental elemental” encounter being another case of mistaken identity! This, and Them There Eyes before it, had clean “snap” endings which always appeal to me. Them There Eyes was great fun – full of sparkle and bubble and performative pyrotechnics: a golden oldie well reprised.

It was my pleasure to meet Nel Begley and Luke Fowler before the gig and, despite them both being aliens (she from Staines; he from Western Australia!), they were both jolly nice people whose CV’s promised much, music-wise. They delivered! If they venture this far north again, go and see them – you won’t regret it! Jerry