Jazz breaking news: Scott of the romantic returns for Pizza residency as Soho slumbers
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Some traditions die hard.
The annual New Year Scott Hamilton Pizza Express Jazz Club residency, which began on Sunday as Soho was still recovering after a hectic mammoth session of revelry, is the very antithesis of a night on the tiles. Not that the party was over by any means by last night when the saxophonist, synonymous with a certain fogey-ish mainstream laidback style that seems to dip in and out of fashion every so often, rolled back the years with a Nat King Cole song.
With the elegantly succinct John Pearce on piano, the wonderful Dave Green on bass studying his mighty instrument as if it were a fine carriage clock, and the constantly beaming Steve Brown dressed in jacket and tie as if he’d just been to visit a kindly if stern maiden aunt, Hamilton delivered his solos as lovingly as an Edwardian gent would tend to his cellar. To misquote Henry James “there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as playing from the Great American Songbook.”
Even though tumbleweed was blowing through most Soho bars and restaurants last night in the gloom of a January Monday, a good crowd of diners filled the club which until Scott’s quartet took up residency had been smooth-jazz-central with Acoustic Alchemy and G-Funk during the festive season. Hamilton’s luxurious and very romantic sound is always tasteful, unlike most smooth jazz – let's face it – and as he weaves sub plot after sub plot into his saga-like runs you’d be a fool to drift away. A set can consist of songs that take 15 minutes to unfold but keep your attention, indulge the hopeless romantic within, yet manage to keep sight of grim reality. The trading of fours wittily undertaken, and the understated lyrical touch delivered unshowily Hamilton does so well, and the band responded to his every move. I’m not a fan of ‘Old Devil Moon’ but Hamilton’s version however diffidently presented was wonderful and the lovely Mandel/Mercer song ‘Emily’, originally from the 1964 film The Americanization of Emily, a delight.
– Stephen Graham