Curse these stupid First buses being an hour late, Oh no mate, I don't know where the other bus is, maybe the pixies stole it away but I'm on time, honest guv. So after all that and a quick trip to the cash machine I find that The Heath Robinson is already going strong, everybody looks very entertained and happy and I am assured that I've already missed the best song of the night, something to do with violence in Clifton. When he runs out of songs to play, he is persuaded to do The Jukebox Will Tear Us Apart, a song by the great band Angel Tech which works very well with just the piano.
Jar has some highly complex music, so complex in fact that she stumbles over her hands quite a bit. It's like running water, all modern mathematical sequences generating soundscapes a la Glass or other such maths musicians. It gets a little bit too avant garde for me at times but it doesn't last long and when she sings... Jar has a strong alto voice which clashes wonderfully with her childlike attitude and lyrics. Her shy charm more than makes up for the post-modernism, especially when singing her silly, funny and sometimes scary songs (friends friends friends, friends are all you need...).
Lady Nade has an amazing deep soul / jazz voice, and that's what she sings, accompanied on the piano by her friend, she kicks off with Nina Simone's My baby just cares for me and does a few original numbers. It's quite something to hear such an accomplished singer in such a small intimate setting and it's a shame that we don't get to hear more. Jim Moray, quite a force in the modern folk world, plays some folky troubadour-like slightly traditional songs, about cavaliers and maidens. I don't know what to say about this sort of thing but I get completely sucked in to each one, he really is a great storyteller and a brilliant pianist.
3 Men and a Baby Grand kick off their set with the theme music from Film 1999 or whatever the first one was that had that music. You know - the Billy Taylor Trio's I wish I knew (how it felt to be free) - unforgettable and since it's a piano-themed evening, what else would you expect? They play a few trad. Blues-by-numbers songs which are marred only slightly by the fact that the musicians are reading the music, even for the solos! Apparently this is a scratch band, cobbled together just for this gig and it is a very impressive, professional sound they have. The Klezmer they do is fantastic though, and soon has everyone clapping along and shouting hoi!