By Peter Fletcher
The Liam Dunachie Trio consists of Liam Dunachie on Hammond organ, James Kitchman on guitar and Will Glaser on drums.
As befits a group grown around the iconic Hammond C3 organ with Leslie rotating speakers, their style is unashamedly vintage 1960s jazz and tonight gave us more show tunes than trad, mainstream or bebop standards.
On the menu was: Stompin’ At The Savoy, My Romance, Kasumi and Buttons (originals by Liam Dunachie), Body and Soul, The Song Is You, Miss Otis Regrets and I’m Afraid The Masquerade Is Over.
The main obstacle to achieving a club atmosphere wasn’t the church surroundings or the reverberant acoustic, it was the rather serious audience, who listened in reverential silence and applauded only at the end of a number.
Some very fine improvisation went unacknowledged until a spectacular extended drum solo in The Song Is You.
Will Glaser used many of his varied technical skills with a lightness of touch which well suited the building and rightly earned a round of applause.
James Kitchman’s approach was attractively melodic, often using octaves and sixths as well as a panoply of jazz chords and inversions.
Definitely a jazz stylist rather than a blues man.
Classic organ techniques were displayed by Liam, with smears, glissandi, percussive playing, vibrato and expression pedal typical of the Hammond.
He also coaxed a walking bass from the full pedal board.
With clever arrangements and tight intros and endings, we were offered a slick and accomplished performance; a very relaxed end to the day.
Nice.
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