This is the second Judith Owen live performance I’ve covered for Jazz Journal in slightly less than four months and I was, not unnaturally, curious to note what, if anything, differed, in what was on offer this second time. I was fairly confident that her excellent musicians, who provide sterling support and are known collectively as The Callers, would be relatively unchanged, if only because all six performers make their homes in New Orleans and tend to tour as an ensemble. I did, it seems, get that one wrong; drummer Jamison Ross couldn’t make the new tour, and was replaced by Pedro Segundo, and the rhythm section was, in fact, supplemented by Dave Blenkhorn, on guitar; I was, however, delighted to find David Torkanowsky, piano, Lex Warshawsky, bass, and front-line Kevin Louis, trumpet, and Ricardo Pascal, tenor, all present and accounted for, boding well for a fine evening.
There was, however, one marked difference; when I saw Ms. Owen in February I did so at Pizza Express in Central London, a small, intimate venue holding less than one hundred people, a venue she had no difficulty in filling to capacity. Now, this evening, she was appearing at the 400-seat Bush Hall, in West London. Already that was two strikes – location, capacity – against her, and if we throw in the heatwave currently in full spate, it could have ended in tears.
I needn’t have worried. Arriving 30 minutes before the scheduled door-opening, I found I was punter 37 in a line that stretched around the block when we were finally admitted. Chatting to fellow standees I learned that one lady had been in the audience at Pizza Express, and one man had travelled from Chester. As the audience filed in I found it impossible to classify them either by age or ethnicity; there were substantial numbers of every generation from late teens to geriatric, with Asian, black and European in equal numbers, and, for all I knew, the odd Inuit and Serbo-Croat. Time was that C.P.A. stood for Certified Public Accountant. Now it appears to mean Crowd Pleaser Absolute.
This crowd was seriously wired. They gave her a standing ovation just for climbing onto the stand. Most performers wait until the second set before they get the audience clapping on the off-beat. Ms. Owen does so from the second number. And yes, she did do at least half a dozen numbers I recalled from Pizza Express. It mattered not a whit nor a jot; as far as this crowd was concerned, Blossoms, To Your Door, Moanin’, Addicted To Love and I Put A Spell On You could have been written this morning. She also knows how to ring the changes; Blue Skies was simply bass, guitar, piano and voice, and she took to the piano herself for half the first set. All the musicians get their hour in the sun, and each eight-bar break was greeted with applause. As I noted previously, all the personnel are resident in New Orleans. Their next date (sold out) is in Cardiff on 4 June and if this gig is anything to go by The Land Of My Fathers will soon be saying Goodbye, lava bread, Hello, gumbo.
Judith Owen & The Callers. Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Road, London, W12 7LJ. Monday, 1 June 2016
Read JJ’s interview with Judith Owen here.
