When a lot of places are shut or having to resort to streaming and folks are staying home due to Covid you have got to search mighty hard for the real McCoy. When you find it, what a joy.
Happen when you venture out a night of deep New Orleans blues awaits – such a night – you may well consider yourself very fortunate indeed to clamber up the stairs at Ronnie Scott's to the voodoo lounge and count your lucky stars.
Beginning with Jelly Roll Morton, later Allen Toussaint and other New Orleans classics, 'Careless Love' early on was fine and mellow but there was much bounty to come oh yes and more.
Pipkin, in thrall to Jon Cleary, and to James Booker and to Fats Domino, the Englishman has a fine voice, a sort of a bluesy alto and a wonderful intuitive piano style: rolling. His album C'mon Sunshine (Hambone) is out at the minute and the singer-pianist played a few of his own songs among the classics. Pick of the night? Without a shadow of a doubt Pipkin's cultured take on the butterfly master James Booker's 'Classified'. Stunning sounds on a blue Monday as Soho slumbered. What a left hand. Dom Pipkin, above upstairs in Ronnie Scott's. Photo: marlbank
Tags: