Fleece Jazz tries to provide variety with excellent musicianship, and we had a winner again last Friday. Gill Manly’s superb voice and wide ranging choice of material was beautifully supported by Trevor Hyatt on mandola, guitar, backing and up front vocals, and Thomas Coffey on guitar and backing vocals. Gill did some backing vocal work too: what a team! The audience loved her. The problem is that there were far too few of you.
Gill;s theory that every culture has its equivalent of the blues, whether happy or sad, was the guiding force in the design of the set list. The variety was impressive. Of course, with Gill, the first song was a great blues, Doc Pomus’s “Lonely Avenue”.
We got a taste of the range of tone and dynamics which is a feature of her singing. Of course, without the words, it is a vocal exercise. Gill cherishes the words.
It became clear later (partly because she said so) that she is influenced by Mark Murphy, the great improvising jazz singer that we recently lost. Her interpretation of McCartney/Lennon’s “Eleanor Rigby” was amazing. Just to show the range of the evening, we had Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love”, a traditional Cajun Creole tune whose name I missed, the traditional blue grass song “Sorrow All My Days ” (I think that is the title). The encore was gospel (evangelical, originally African American) “Lets Go Down to the River to Pray”.
Thomas sang the high part of the backup harmonies and played excellent guitar. His solo on the Cohen song was moving. What was interesting was the variety of guitar styles used to fit the song.
Trevor has a voice suited to Cab Calloway’s Grammy Hall of Fame “Minnie the Moocher”, and the Seasick Steve number (I forgot the name, sorry). In the latter, Gill did some terrific scat. Trevor played a mandola, which is a mandolin with a different tuning, and guitar. He also changed genres with ease.
A lovely gig for us lucky few.
Next week. a singer with a very special take on everything she does. Barb Jungr will be with us. I cannot wait to hear how she handles the work of Bob Dylan. Jenny Carr on piano and Dudley Phillips on bass are the perfect accompaniment for this star. Book for this one, she is very popular.
Take care,
Dave