Live Review
Georgie Fame
The Artist's Quarter - St. Paul, Minnesota
October 18, 2003
by Dave “Doc” Piltz
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"Keeping the Blues Alive Award"
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Georgie Fame has been a household name in British music since the early 1960's, offering a blend of jazz and American R & B that resulted in three number one singles during the 1960s. Fame played piano and organ in addition to singing, and was influenced by the likes of Mose Allison, Booker T. & the MG's, and Louis Jordan. Though less well known in the United States, Fame has had two relatively successful pop hits on this side of the Atlantic, including his best known American hit, "Yeh Yeh" based on a popular 1965 instrumental by Mongo Santamaria and 1967's, "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde," a song about America's infamous gangster couple, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrows.
In more recent history, Fame has stayed in the limelight through is ongoing collaborations with Irish singer Van Morrison and his work as a founding member of former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman's band, The Rhythm Kings. Fame's own solo work has included recording with his sons Tristan and James Powell on guitar and drums, and several recordings on Ben Sidran's Go Jazz label including his acclaimed Poet of New York.
With American audiences recently reintroduced to Fame through his appearance in Mike Figgis contribution to Martin Scorsese's PBS film series, The Blues, entitled Red, White and Blues, his two night, four show appearance at The Artist's Quarter in downtown St. Paul became a much-anticipated event.
Fame opened his set on piano, playing and singing solo on his opening number, "This Old Rockin' Chair," a Hoagy Carmichael classic. Vocal breaks in the song were filled with nice piano and whistled solos. For the second number of the set, Mose Allison's jazz-blues classic, "Parchman Farm," Fame moved to the Hammond organ and brought out his excellent backing musicians for the evening, including Billy Peterson (bass), Leo Peterson (drums), Gary Ward (sax) and the very talented Ben Sidran (yes, that Ben Sidran) on piano. The addition of Sidran to the musical mix, promised to make the evening even more fantastic than expected and no one left the room disappointed at the end.
On a variety of songs that included "Get On The Right Track," Ray Charles' "I Wanna Know," the title tack of Van Morrison's recording "How Long Has This Been Going On" and his U. S. hit, "Yeh Yeh!", Fame played and sang with great enthusiasm and he, Gary Ward and Ben Sidran traded off, offering up some nice solos on each tune. On the jazz classic, "It's Happening to Me," Fame stepped out at the break and let the band groove without him, returning to close out the song. The show concluded with another Ray Charles classic, "Georgia," very well done by Fame and including some surprising harmonica fills and a solo by Gary Ward.
Georgie Fame's appearance at The Artist's Quarter was very well-received by everyone in attendance. I was particularly thrilled at my first opportunity to see this fine musical performer and flattered to be mentioned as the "bloke at the bar" who motivated him to play "How Long Has This Been Going On," when I asked him to autograph the CD liner. It was a great evening and a fine performance.
To find out more about Georgie Fame, visit his website at www.georgiefame.com. For the latest schedule of events at The Artist's Quarter, visit their website at www.mnjazz.com.
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