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| © 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.
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| © 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!
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| © 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.
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| © 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
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