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Argus review by John Styles, April 2004
The mercurial but steadfast live jazz scene in Brighton has supported several solid units in a variety of residences, with Lawrence Jones and Simon Savage's Blue Note team being key figures.
One of our most venerable small venues is the Grand Central pub, which now supports a young team of jazzers who continue and develop the tradition.
Vocalist Matty Eeles embraces the old and the new in her other groups, including house-based improvisation and gypsy jazz. She and her Lush Life band have based their successful residency around the standard repertoire, with soul and blues firmly in the mix too.
It's a generous, bustling room that lends itself well to a live band. The trio kicks off each set with instrumental favourites, including an updating of So What and Stella By Starlight.
With Matty at the helm, the material favours familiar vocal gems such as Lullaby Of Birdland, Night and Day, Witchcraft and Lover Man, and an excursion into Latin with Dindi.
Highlighting Matty's rich range of tones, the bluesy, funky choices include Black Coffee, an Aretha Franklin favourite, Baby I Love You and the Bill Withers classic Ain't No Sunshine. This also allowed for pianist Tom Phelan, double bassist James Treasure and drummer Alex Eberhard to really stretch out;
Monks Around Midnight was given a rousing uptempo treatment, while mellow choices included Nature Boy and You Don't Know What Love Is.
The soulful tones of Matty's voice brought Dinah Washington to mind at times. The vocal showpiece Twisted has morphed from its saxophonic origins with Wardell Gray through Annie Ross and Joni Mitchell, here its blues and bop melange provided another highlight of a great night of well chosen, live jazz.
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Cargo Press Release for my last DJ/live project Jam Donut. This project has now been taken over by the far superior exploits of Kilter...but just to give you a taster of things past and what we got up to on the last project, here the press release.
Jam Donut is currently running a successful residency
at the Ocean Rooms in Brighton "Boy Girl" night on Saturdays, always to sell out crowds. Forthcoming events include "The Egg" at Kings Cross on 19th July 2005, the Love Box festival on the 5th June 2005 In Newcastle, plus a date to be confirmed at the 333 club.
3 up and coming DJs; Whyman, Blizczak and Joe Volpeliere, spin tunes to the live improvisations of Johnny Tarr onSax, Assep on guitar, Matty Eeles on vocals and Tim Mercer on percussion. This demo [for clips click here] provides some small vocals snippets over unmixed tunes to give you a taster…if you add some bad ass mixing then you've got Jam Donut.
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