Concert Review - By Tom Cleary

Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band

Close your eyes for the opening bars and imagine that just around the corner in New Orleans a band is coming together, tuning up lazily, maybe ‘with a glass or two' and then it ambles towards you into full earshot. It's the atmosphere that Woody Allen and his New Orleans jazz band captured as they opened their two-hour, no-break gig in the Brighton Centre on December 19th. The band was playing just one concert in these parts on their annual winter tour to Europe. After Brighton they moved on to concerts in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Greece.

This was a great night of traditional and authentic New Orleans Jazz played in a dreamy and laid-back style to a virtually full house of 2,500 fans. Woody Allen, in his deadpan and self-effacing way, introduced the concert as a collection of tunes from the dancehalls, brothels, funerals, weddings and bars of New Orleans. He tells us to sit back and 'We'll give you the best shot we can.'

The seven members of the band are probably not well-known as individual players in these parts, but the individual and ensemble playing is second to none. Eddie Davis on banjo is leader and music director, Simon Wettenhall is on trumpet, Jerry Zigmont on trombone, Cynthia Sayer on piano, Conal Fowles on string bass and Rob Garcia on drums. Allen, who's on the clarinet, draws amazing sounds from the instrument, favouring chirpy bird-like openings. He also makes the clarinet literally talk and laugh. In some of the ensemble pieces you find yourself smiling at the clarinet laughing and chattering in the background. And Allen barely takes a break throughout the show. On stage, seated with his legs crossed and his feet tapping, he reminds one of Paddy Moloney.

They also give us lots of old favourites with three of the band, Davis, Wettenhall and particularly Sayer, dropping in subtle vocals for emphasis here and there--'Who walks in when I walk out?', 'Do that thing' and many more. I detected less subtlety in the vocals of the old soldiers marching song 'Down by the riverside… Ain't going to study war no more … lay my weapons down'. The only female in the band – Sayer–joined with band leader Davis for a beautiful vocal treatment of 'The Silvery Moon'. After 90 minutes the band left the stage only to come back for a 30-minute encore. During this session they provided lots of local colour with renditions of the 'White Cliffs of Dover', 'We'll meet again', and 'I'll be seeing you'. Capturing the spirit of the night, a colourful female fan of indeterminate age approached the stage to do a dance accompaniment (verging on the exotic) of 'We'll meet again'. A security guard who approached her was booed off by the audience. He retired gracefully to a safe distance while Allen and his band went on to accompany their new-found dancer for a rousing end to a great night in New Orleans– sorry– Brighton. It's worth looking out for next winter's tour schedule later in the year–keep an eye on www.woodyallenband.com

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