ENDING their season once again with a jazz performance, Sowerby Music presented Sweet Chorus, John Etheridge’s tribute group to the late Stephane Grappelli.
They last appeared here five years ago with the same line-up (in fact unchanged for 12 years now) with Etheridge on acoustic and electric guitars, Chris Garrick on violin, Dave Kelbie rhythm guitar and Andy Crowdy double bass.
In a wonderfully entertaining evening I’m not sure what was the most impressive – their stunning virtuosity, tremendous rhythmic sense or their cohesion as a group.
Add to these an infectious pleasure from their obvious enjoyment and an ability to switch from the sweetest ballads to a hard driving swing.
Their programme opened with When You’re Smiling performed with a wonderful swing with Kelbie and Crowdy really driving things along.
Other memorable performances included an exquisitely shaded interpretation of I Saw Her Passing By, a feature for Crowdy on Laverne Walk, Django Reinhardt’s Swing 39 and the Charlie Christian classic Airmail Special, taken at a nice lope rather than too frantically.
The second set contained a wider mix still from Abdullah Ibrahim’s Msunduza and the Shadows’ Apache to more swing classics like Seven Come Eleven and Limehouse Blues.
Reinhardt’s Blue Drag brought a particularly eloquent solo by Etheridge and an entertaining violin solo by Garrick and, after some very enthusiastic applause, two encores with Nuages seguing into After You’ve Gone.
Peter Bevan
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