Caroline Stephen (vcl); Keith Stephen (gtr/bjo); Roly Veitch (gtr/vcl); Bruce Rollo (bs).
A good turn out for the return of Keith Stephen's Gypsy Jazz Trio with Caroline Stephen (formerly Irwin) and what a good evening we had. The members also welcomed Lily Veitch, Roly's mother, who at 90 is an amazing lady, with a passion and enthusiasm for Jazz and an inspiration to all who are in their Autumn years.
Through-out the evening The Elephant was haunted by the ghosts of Django and Piaf, who would I think, have applauded the tribute to their unforgettable talents.
Roly provided two untitled originals so I have taken the liberty to name them Roly's Tune and Roly's Calypso. A member suggested "Name that tune". Not very imaginative but the melodies were excellent.
Caroline's vocals mature with every performance. Showing complete confidence she has developed into a most entertaining artiste. C'est Si Bon, Happy as the Day is Long, I Get The Blues When it Rains, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Running Wild and La Vie En Rose, were all executed with great skill and animation. An audience pleaser!
The trio of Keith, Roly and Bruce Rollo play together in superb harmony and with perfect understanding.
We enjoyed marvelous solo improvisation from all three and it was wonderful to hear Bruce on bass featured on Indiana. As always his Slam Stewart slapping bass style sounded as if there was a duo. How does he do that?
Roly sang Oh What a Little Moonlight Can Do (- 00-00).
As we moved into the second half with After You've Gone and Bie Mir Bist du Schoen (Excuse the German spelling) little did we know that there would be further treats along the way. Keith brought out his banjo and played a melody which to me had a Greek sound which was new to our ears it was warmly applauded.
Caroline, performer extrordinaire, produced a Kazoo and with banjo gave us If it Don't Fit, Don't Force it which caused much laughter, certainly more risque that her version earlier of Over the Rainbow She also added Stupid Cupid with great guitar support.The floor was invaded once again by two young dancers in the French Style which was warmly received. There were other numbers in this long programme and we got good value for money.
Part two began with After You've Gone and the night ended with You Meet a Lot of Very Nice People in Your Dreams.
After the show we all would definitely remember this night for its quality and variety and the nice people of Ashington JazzClub look forward to seeing them again. See you next month when Maine Street Jazz and Olive take the stand.
Photos.
Peter S.
Rolys tunes were called "Attune" and "Calypso Jim" - hopefully will be on our new cd to be recorded in July.
ReplyDeleteThanks for rthe great review BTW.
cheers Keith