The Perth Festival tested the water with the inclusion of Jools Holland and His Rhythm and Blues Band in its programme, and was rewarded not only with a full house, but - judging by the acclaim which greeted the encore - a well-satisfied audience. If it marked a modest shift in direction for the festival, however, it was very much business as usual for the band.
Jools Holland has proved highly adept at making the most of the talents he possesses, both as a musician and a TV presenter. He is an old-fashioned entertainer at heart, a point underlined by his opening flourish, when he whipped a silky red sheet from his glitter-covered piano and launched into a tumbling boogie-woogie piano figure, the prelude to a typically lively, no-frills set with a high-nostalgia appeal.
His piano playing is easily the most impressive of his attainments, built on a base of boogie-woogie and stride piano with rhythm and blues riffing. Bolstered by the energised drumming of Gilson Lavis, Mark Flanagan's crisp guitar work, and a tight, punchy horn section, he moved out from that base to take in blues, gospel, early rock'n'roll, and even ska, with trombonist Rico Rodrigues adding the Caribbean touch.
Holland is personable rather than really interesting as a singer, and his vocals were very indistinct in the sound mix. His son, Christopher, played organ throughout, but proved no more distinguished in the vocal department, and it was left to Sam Brown to lift the pace with her powerful contributions on four songs, including Dylan's The Times They Are A'Changing.
T
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article