IAN SHAW AND FRIENDS AT THE GONVILLE HOTEL
Iain Bellamy , Ian Shaw and Jamie Safir in brilliant form.
Music can take you anywhere. Last night’s jazz event had that magic carpet effect . At times it might have been Manhattan - or a set in between hands of poker in Vegas. Close your eyes and you see a suave American mid century crooner as smooth as Jonny Mathis. In fact surely it is Jonny Mathis, or Nat King Cole or even Sinatra?. The voice is mellow - the music is familiar. Yet open your eyes and there is the burly figure of Ian Shaw, the white tuxedo you imagined is gone. He wears a worker’s jacket and stripey matelot shirt . With his pork pie hat,this entertainer is very much in the modern era. But even with eyes wide open, hints of other musical influences drift through. Was that a hint of Tony Bennett or, further flung, Richard Tauber in his persuasive lyrical early 20th century heyday?
Iain Bellamy Ian Shaw and Jamie Safir
Jamie Safir resplendent on piano is the glorious bedrock to the mysterious voice whilst Ian Bellamy the Saxophonist blows melody into the mix. Jazz is always unexpected. But with this exciting trio The Modern Jazz Club, David Gower and volunteer jazzophiles, have celebrated their 50th anniversary with predictable skill. One week there is a celestial Swiss harpist, the next - well, Ian Shaw and his diverse offering. His is a teaser of an act. There is the perfection of the instrumental playing. Jamie Safir is near on sublime with his improvised riffs set beside his music notes-led precision. It is hypnotically delightful - as is the warm undertow of a brilliant saxophonist Iain (with another I) Bellamy simply floats in and out of the amazing song choices . The title of the group’s new album (which I wish I’d bought - not often you think that - but sold out) is What’s New? And what a swing to the title song Ian brought to the gig. ‘What’s new?’ is heartbreakingly understated as a song. A choked ex-lover runs into The One in the street. He sticks stoically with What’s New as conversational gambit, but tells us in one desperate line that there’s nothing new with him - he’s still hopelessly in love. The same quirky sophistication came to Cole Porter’s Get out of Town - where the lover playfully but painfully tells his Longed for One that she/he must leave, set up a farm somewhere and ‘charm the birds off the trees there’ - at an rate leave as their intermittent meetings are driving him out of his mind. Yet it’s a fun song. Sort of .
Jamie Safir - pianist extraordinaire
The group took Christmas full on in the second half. Ian Shaw reminisced about a childhood Christmas in Wales, rather far from Dylan Thomas’ experience, but heart warming in a different way. It was the 70s, the fairy lights got so hot you could toast on them and baubles so fragile the merest breath might shatter them. With a nervous but loving father in charge, Ian paints the picture of his life, aided by memories of TV shows long forgotten, the mention of which raises a smile Val Doonican in his cardigan - as do the music groups of the time, Shakattack anyone?
Out of this super ordinariness the group conjure lovely magical memoirs which a cynic could very mistakenly term corny. But their version of the Chestnuts roasting on an Open Fire song was vocally divine with more chocolate smooth input from the intrumentalists. Bert Bachararach ‘s Alfie made a daring encore .
Note from The Cambridge Critique. ‘Ian - Record More”
