Dave Mott’s Jazz Classics

Jamie Brownfield and Suzanne Mott - Dave Mott's Jazz Classics

Unquestionably the star of Dave Mott’s Jazz Classics’ show at The New Town National Club in Nixon Street was singer Suzanne Mott who along with a line-up comprising dad Dave on reeds, Eric Brierley on trombone, Richard Vernon on bass, Jim Scaife on drums and guests pianist Tom Kincaid and trumpeter Jamie Brownfield held a sizeable audience in thrall for the best part of three hours.

The band began in lively fashion with ‘Royal Garden Blues’ and brief cameos from all concerned.

Then came the rhythms of the Caribbean by way of saxophonist Sonny Rollins’ composition ‘St Thomas’ before Suzanne took the microphone for the first time with ‘Sister Kate’ and with the full ensemble in support ‘Exactly Like You’.

Dave on baritone sax joined pianist Kincaid in support of Brownfield for Louis Armstrong’s ‘Oh Baby’, there were sorties into Ellington territory first with ‘Black And Tan Fantasy’ then, courtesy of drummer Scaife, a decidedly up tempo ‘Stevedore Stomp’.

Finally, after almost a full hour’s entertainment, Suzanne returned to end the set a la femme fatale sultrily demanding ‘Peel Me A Grape’ then in red hot momma mode imploring ‘Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home’.

Set Two opened no less explosively than the first with ‘Panama’ and then in a style reminiscent of various Eddie Condon bands came ‘Beale Street Blues’ a tune named, exceptionally so it seems, after a street in Memphis as opposed to one in New Orleans.

Mott (Pere) was once again on baritone sax with Brownfield and Kincaid in support as Eric Brierley took the microphone for ‘Nobody’s Sweetheart Now’ after which Kincaid soloed to prolonged audience applause on ‘Too Marvellous For Words’.

‘Happy Feet’, a New Orleans march, evoked memories of those United States Army marching bands which used regularly to appear at military tattoos over in Edinburgh or at Earls Court, Suzanne was back with ‘C’est Si Bon’ ,sung in impeccable French of course, but the undoubted highlight of her evening’s performance came by way of her and piano maestro Kincaid’s uncannily accurate take on the Eva Cassidy arrangement of ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’.

A hard act to follow, certainly, but there was time enough for the big band sound to reassert itself and for Suzanne and company to belt out the Louis Jordan novelty number ‘Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens’.

The final set began with father Mott blowing up a storm on baritone with ‘Fidgety Feet’, there was a Jamie Brownfield tour de force via the King Oliver composition ‘West End Blues’ then back came the big band sound with overtones first of Ellington and that ‘Night Train’, of Benny Goodman, his legendary 1938 Carnegie Hall concert and ‘Sing Sing Sing’ then Suzanne was back to round things off with Pennies From Heaven, with A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square and to bring another evening of top jazz entertainment to a close cajoling us all into to singing along on Down By The Riverside.