REVIEW: Jeff Barnhart Band,The Concorde, Eastleigh.

TOP American jazz pianist Jeff Barnhart set the ivories on fire with an intoxicating cocktail of red hot jazz, classic swing, blues and ragtime.

The internationally acclaimed pianist, vocalist, arranger, bandleader, recording artist and composer first appeared in the early nineties at The Concorde and described it as the best jazz club in the United Kingdom.

In his latest appearance he helped to put the icing on the birthday cake as the club celebrated its 60 th anniversary.

It was a shame that there were not more there to share Jeff’s jazz party as he served up a medley of mouth watering musical gems from the song books of American music icons Fats Waller, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Doris Day.

He made those piano keys hum with Moe Koffman’s Swingin’ Shepherd Blues, Fats Waller’s Vipers Drag and Jesse Fuller’s San Francisco Bay Blues, which has also been covered by guitar god Eric Clapton.

Running through the two lively sets was a master class in blistering banjo by Spats Langham. He started playing the ukulele as soon as his fingers were big enough.

Inspired by his grandfather he turned to banjo when he was 10.

Spats made his Concorde debut when he was 17 and has been a regular ever since and in his Concorde return he gave an electrifying performance, occasionally switching to guitar.

He is a familiar face in many top bands including the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, The Temperance Seven, Acker Bilk and Chris Barber.

Bandleader Jeff struck a political note as he told the audience that not every American voted for Trump.

But he soon got back on musical track with with Crazy Rhythm , a 32 bar swing show tune written in 1928 for a Broadway musical. It became a jazz standard, inspiring at least 15 albums.

That was quickly followed by Irving Berlin’s popular 1926 song Blue Skies and sharing stage with Jeff was his wife and flutist Anne Barnhart and Malcolm Sked on double bass, sousaphone and tuba.

Malcolm, along with Spats, is a member of Hot Combination band which showcases red hot jazz of the 1920’s New York to the early days of the sophisticated 1930s swing.

And Malcolm pulled off a remarkable ambidextrous musical feat as he played the sousaphone and double bass at the same time.

Switching from flute to vocals Anne gave a powerful delivery of Sophie Tucker’s signature tune, Some of These Days with great banjo playing from Spats.

Concorde jazz fans were sent home with George Gershwin’s 1930 toe tapping I’ve Got Rhythm, a template for many popular jazz tunes.

It was a perfect finale to two sets of sizzling jazz which marked the end of the current season of The Concorde’s Wednesday jazz nights which restart on September 13 with internationally acclaimed pianist, singer and songwriter Joe Stilgoe.

Duncan Eaton