MUSIC

The Old Bookshop, Bristol (Sat 3 Dec)

A nice new band in a nice new venue - Christmas has come early to North Street’s ‘other’ end and local appreciation is suitably high. The Old Bookshop is a small café/bar just down from The Spotted Cow. Open for just under a month, it’s already got a reputation both for Sunday lunches and live gigs, the latter benefitting from a proper little stage. And there’s an ironic chintziness about the décor that perfectly suits singer Emily Wright’s new swing combo and their old school good time tunes played sharply yet with affection. Thus Blossom Dearie’s ‘I’m Hip’, itself a withering satire from the 60s, sits comfortably alongside ‘Caravan’ and ‘One Note Samba’, and even ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ manages to escape from the constraints of lift music. Ms Wright doesn’t throw these potentially cheesy numbers away, but delivers them with zippy brightness and the right sheen of entertainment to refresh even the most familiar. In the absence of a drummer, much hangs on bass player Will Harris and he doesn’t disappoint, keeping the swing beat with both precision and bounce and thus delivering a sure-footed foundation to keyboard player Mike Willox and saxophonist Jake McMurchie. These two also enter into the spirit of things, embellishing the songs with solos that please the crowd without taking over the numbers. It’s a well-crafted performance all round and the well-packed Bookshop is more than satisfied by the end. (Tony Benjamin)

Copyright Tony Benjamin 2011