They were frisking punters at Crazy Coqs on Saturday, on the off-chance they were secreting about their persons a crowbar, or at the very least a shoehorn, that would enable them to squeeze one more person into an SRO venue.
Ms. Delmar, for hers was indeed the name on the tin, was battling considerable odds. Consider: it was a Saturday afternoon. Wet. One month before Christmas. Outside the Christmas lights of Regent Street whispered of Black Friday bargains crying out to be stolen. Temptations indeed. And yet seriously discerning palates knew where the real action was, and who was best equipped to lay it on them. Ms. Delmar in person. One storey below street level. Cocooned by the piano of Barry Green, the bass of his namesake, Dave, and the alto and tenor sax of Alan Barnes as she laid a baker’s dozen of prime Ellingtonia on us sans intermission and then bowed off to a standing ovation.
She came on behind a smile wide enough to leave The Cheshire Cat looking clinically depressed, and went straight into Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, the faint aroma of porkies in the air, given it’s the second SRO gig she’s done in four days. It’s the ballads, however, that display the real pipes available to her at the flick of a crotchet, and if you have a penchant for industrial-strength moonlight strained through gossamer you came to the right place.
Not too many performers go mano a mano with Billy Strayhorn’s Something To Live For. There’s a reason. It’s a bitch to sing. Not if you’re Elaine Delmar. For good measure she threw in Strayhorn’s other gem, Lush Life. Even Sinatra gave up on that, leaving it half-completed in the recording studio. Perhaps the standout ballad to this jaded palate was Sophisticated Lady, during which you could hear a pin thinking about dropping, and then thinking better about trying.
This is not to suggest that those who like to get out of first once in a while were neglected – they could wallow in I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart, It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing, Squeeze Me, But Please Don’t Tease Me. Throughout, the accompaniment got more than a look-in, eight- and 16-bar solos for the asking. In sum: this was the kind of gig that gives the London Jazz Festival a good name.
Elaine Delmar – An Afternoon At Duke’s Place, Crazy Coqs, 29 Sherwood Street, London W1, 23 November 2024
