Scott Flanigan, Point of Departure, scottflanigan.com

From 2015. Scott Flanigan is the Belfast jazz scene’s most familiar pianist at the moment, often to be heard at Bert’s jazz bar in the city or performing all over Ireland with a wide range of leaders including Linley Hamilton and Ronnie Greer. …

Published: 14 Nov 2019. Updated: 4 years.

From 2015. Scott Flanigan is the Belfast jazz scene’s most familiar pianist at the moment, often to be heard at Bert’s jazz bar in the city or performing all over Ireland with a wide range of leaders including Linley Hamilton and Ronnie Greer.

Making room for his own music here in the company of bassist Neil O’Loghlen and drummer Steve Davis the album actually opens with a dark and brooding solo flourish from Flanigan on his own composition ‘The Masterplan’ the album moving on to include other original material of the pianist’s such as the title track and the absorbing ‘Elevate.’

Also included are ‘Love Lost’ by the fine Irish mainstream jazz singer Edel Meade and some standards: ‘Moonlight Serenade’, ‘I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face’ and ‘Stars Fell On Alabama.’

Flanigan reminds me of Ronnie Scott’s house pianist James Pearson a little and like Pearson can journey in and out of the modern mainstream tradition with considerable facility and ease. Flanigan has made a very mature and compelling start here and deserves to be much better known beyond his home scene and he is more than ably supported by O’Loghlen and Davis. SG

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Sarah McKenzie, Pizza Express Jazz Club, London

From 2015. Opening with Betty Carter’s ‘Tight’ this was the second night of the Australian singer-pianist’s first ever live shows in London. The song choice was appropriate given that it is on McKenzie’s Impulse debut We Could Be Lovers and doubly …

Published: 14 Nov 2019. Updated: 4 years.

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From 2015. Opening with Betty Carter’s ‘Tight’ this was the second night of the Australian singer-pianist’s first ever live shows in London. The song choice was appropriate given that it is on McKenzie’s Impulse debut We Could Be Lovers and doubly so as former Betty Carter drummer Gregory Hutchinson was in her band sitting opposite on the small Pizza Express stage.

An ex-student of Berklee in Boston, and mentored over the years by trumpeter James Morrison, 27-year-old McKenzie’s new album follows four years on from Don’t Tempt Me and there were several songs from that album included here besides the title track, her take on ‘I Won’t Dance’ had a certain zing to it.

Gushing to the audience about how great the coffee is in London and, a little more uneasily, grilling them too about which Rodgers and Hart songs they knew (answer there came none) before singing ‘Little Girl Blue’, it was inescapable to draw comparisons with a young Diana Krall and the Australian certainly has star quality to burn, with her megawatt smile and at-ease-with-herself manner. Accompanying her besides Hutchinson were double bassist Tom Farmer and seven-string guitarist Jo Caleb, who featured on an intimate duo with the singer on ‘Moon River,’ one of the evening’s highlights.

The quirky Franco-Brazilian ‘Quoi, Quoi, Quoi’ displayed one aspect of McKenzie’s songwriting ability – she self-effacingly referred to it as her ‘silly’ song – while the playful ‘That’s It I Quit’ was more of a romp but again illuminated the fun side of her writing personality. I wasn’t so convinced when she sang the blues. Yet nonetheless this was a performance that got better and better as the evening wore on.

Stephen Graham