 |
| Leisa Keen -Jared Newall - Steve Amosa and the Blamey Street Big Band. |
The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, October 24. Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.
The Blamey Street Big Band has rapidly built up a growing
audience for its regular concerts at the B in the Queanbeyan Performing Arts
Centre. A perfect venue for this type of presentation, with excellent sound and
lighting, and where every seat is a good one.
Boasting some of the city’s finest jazz musicians, this trim,
taut and terrific 19-piece ensemble has become celebrated for Andrew Hackwill’s
innovative arrangements of the big band repertoire, performed under the fastidious
baton of its affable conductor, Ian McLean.
But for this concert all the arrangements were drawn from
the BSBB’s own extensive music library, being published and purchased charts, mostly
by staff arrangers for the big bands of the period, such as Quincy Jones and
Sammy Cahn, with a few by Australian Ed Wilson, trombone player, leader and
arranger of the famed Daly-Wilson Big Band.
This concert concentrated on music associated with The Rat
Pack, a legendary group of celebrities, initially Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin,
Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, who not only performed on stage together,
but also appeared in each other’s films, television shows and recordings.
As its fame spread, female celebrities also became part of
The Rat Pack, famously Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, and Marilyn Monroe. Their
contributions were recognised in this concert, as was the influence the music
associated with The Rat Pack had on generations of vocalists who followed them,
represented by three of the region’s best in Leisa Keen, Steve Amosa and Jared
Newall.
So, after Ian Mclean introduced the band with a cracking
arrangement for the Count Basie Orchestra of “Fly Me to the Moon”, Newall got
the concert off to a flying start with three songs associated with Frank
Sinatra,” Pennies from Heaven”, “The Best is Yet to Come” and “You Make Me Feel
So Young”.
 |
| Leisa Keen and the Blamey Street Big Band |
Keen continued with superb renditions of songs associated with Judy Garland, “Over the Rainbow” and “Zing Went the Strings of My Heart”, which Amosa followed with more Sinatra repertoire, “Come Fly with Me”, “I Get A Kick Out of You”, and “New York, New York”.
Then it was song after song in a generous program of 28 such
classics, interrupted only by an interval or an interesting tidbit about a song
or Rat Pack member, offered by Mclean or one of the vocalists.
Among many highlights were Keen’s delightful renditions of “Diamonds
are a Girl’s Best Friend”, and “I Wanna be Loved by You”, both associated with
Marilyn Monroe, Amosa’s red-hot version of “It Had to be You”, a song
associated with Harry Connick Jr, and Newall’s laid-back rendition of “Ain’t That a
Kick in the Head”, forever associated with Dean Martin.
 |
| Kofi Amosa - Steve Amosa and the Blamey Street Big Band. |
A highlight for everyone was the surprise appearance of 16-year-old, Kofi Amosa, who joined his dad, Steve, for a swinging rendition of song associated with Michael Buble, “Feeling Good”. Living proof of the adage, “an apple never falls far from the tree”.
But in the end, it is the polished performances and superb
presentation of the outstanding musicians who make up the BSBB, demonstrated in
feature solos by masters of their instruments such as trumpeter Mark Du Rieu
and drummer Noddy Brassington, that define the Blamey Street Big Band and keep
audiences coming back for more. The BSBB’s next concert at the B is scheduled
for May 2027.
 |
| Leisa Keen - Jared Newall - Kofi Amosa - Steve Amosa - Ian Mclean take a bow with The Blamey Street Big Band. Photos by Stephen McGrory. This review first published in CITY NEWS on 25.10.26. Link Here |
