| gig reviews 2009 |
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| Jeff Barnhart / John Hallam - May |
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Jeff Barnhart (Pno/Vcls), John Hallam (Rds), Tony Sharp (Bs), Graham Smith (Dms)
Special guest appearances by
Anne Barnhart (Flt), Amy Roberts (Rds) Tony Davis (Tpt) |
here was a definite buzz of anticipation as the club filled up. Most of the audience had heard this combination before and those who hadn’t were well aware of the esteem which had preceded them.
Not much setting up to do – it had all been done earlier in the day using a very upmarket keyboard supplied by our friends at Vale Pianos and, for the first time, the club’s own built in speakers giving an excellent sound.
With John on clarinet and solos all round Jeff supplied the vocal on ‘I Would do Anything for You’ and on to ‘You Brought a New Kind of Love (to Me)’ where Jeff’s vocal duetted with John’s tenor sax, both displaying a rather husky tone to complement.
Out came the baritone sax for ‘Petite Fleur’ with the piano echoing the sax’s melody and then a heavier beat with more modern phrasing. An inspired solo from Jeff building on the attractive chord sequence plus some drum breaks made for a superbly integrated rendering.
Anne’s first guest spot included what to many was one of the evening’s highlights, ‘Water from an Ancient Well’ written by Abdullah Ibrahim. A haunting melody tenderly performed by Anne to a soul stirring climax and then gently back to earth. There were many lumps in throats after this very moving piece and, during the interval, requests for the CD ‘Autumn Leaves’ which includes this song. There were non available but Anne promised to bring some along to the Festival in August - even more reason to be there!
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| June Review- Hotsy Totsy |
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In complete contrast Jeff on solo piano gave a spellbinding show of technique as the phrases came tumbling out of the finger busting ‘Vipers’Drag’ and, after bringing us all up to a high, on with a simple marching beat behind John’s clarinet for a very atmospheric version of ‘Burgundy Street Blues’.
Up on to the stage came Pershore’s favourite reeds girl, Amy Roberts to join the band on ‘If I Had You’ or, possibly Ewe said Jeff, in which case it would be a Shearing arrangement. Groans!
‘Swonderful’ produced some frantic tenor and alto solos during which Jeff left the stage with the piano still playing in auto mode and returned to finish the piece whilst Graham swopped fours with Amy and John.
After an interval busy with CD sales Jeff managed to fit in all the words on an exuberant ‘Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gave to Me’ before taming the runaway automatic piano for ‘In the Middle of a Kiss’ with John on baritone sax. Does anyone know who composed this one?
Still in the mood for extra long titles, ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’ was taken at a fast tempo with some driving bass from Tony, zippy tenor sax and drum breaks from the far corner of the stage.
‘Summertime’ can often sound a little jaded but not this version as Anne played the melody simply over thoughtful piano chords, an upbeat ad lib and back to the theme as murmurs of appreciation rippled round the room.
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by Peter Farrall |
photo by Val Wood |
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An Edwardian sounding ‘Blue Goose Rag’ started slowly and speeded up with flute and piano neck and neck until Jeff finally conceded that Anne had won – wonderful stuff!
Anne signed off with ‘When I Grow Too Old to Dream’, ¾ time breaking into a quite frantic 4/4 without any loss of that beautiful tone and back to a gentle ¾ finish.
Back on stage came Amy together with Tony Davies for a complete change of mood; the trumpet, tenor and alto line up provided a hot ensemble , good time jazz atmosphere with ‘‘Some of These Days’. Echoes of Condon & Co?
Jeff said that in a club atmosphere like ours with such an appreciative audience he could easily carry on playing until the early hours and we surely could have listened but Jeff and Anne had to depart for the US directly after the last number and we all must go our ways. So, with Jeff coaching the audience participation on ‘Don’t Mean a Thing’ ended a memorable night of superb jazz and humour. See them all again on the College Campus in August.
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