Concert review 26th Feb 2018 Janet Dowsett
It was a cold winter’s night with snow on the ground outside and this no doubt contributed to the disappointingly low turnout of about 28 club members seated in the audience. Those that came were treated to a great concert with a good variety of music and sounds.
After the concert Janet told us that this will be her last visit as she is retiring from travelling for concerts, but she is keeping up her other musical activities.
Amongst the music played for us by Janet were: Red Roses for a Blue Lady,
On A Wonderful Day Like Today/Who Can I Turn To? Hot Toddy, Selection of Abba Songs, Nimrod, Radio Theme Tunes, Alfie, Glenn Miller Tunes, Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines/633 Squadron, Mary Poppins Selection, Sometimes When We Touch, Gilbert And Sullivan Tunes, Selection From Oliver,
Concluded by
Time to Say Goodbye
Posted in Concert Review
Concert review 22nd Jan 2018– Mark Thompson
Our evening concert began with Mark at his keyboard sat facing us attired flamboyantly in an all blue suit. With a big smile he went straight into an opening rendition of; Give me sunshine, a great hit and signature tune for Morecombe and Wise. Mark gave us Music of many genres and a helping of good humour. In the first half of the evening we heard; What a Wonderful World/The Bare Necessities, Jazz n Samba, You’ve Lost That Lovin Feeling, I Just Called to say I love you, The Last Waltz, Bumble Boogie, Brazil, The Prayer, Ratpack Medley, Sleepy Shores, Devil’s Gallop, Dance Macabre, and In the Hall of the Mountain King. For the second half of the evening the blue suit was replaced by a very red one and Mark played for us: Theatre land, Voices of Spring, Thinking Out Loud, Gypsy Rondo, The Nearness of You, Hit the Road Jack, Mack the Knife, Theme from ‘Somewhere in Time’ a 60s Medley, Crocodile Rock, La Bamba, & Johnny B Goode for a much requested encore we heard; My Way.
During the evening Mark gave us a quite a few humorous jokes, a very accomplished performance with surely something for everyone. It wasn’t surprising really to see several members of the audience rise to their feet and applaud him.
Mark entertained us on a Yamaha EL90
Posted in Concert Review
Concert review 18th Dec 2017 – Steve Hubble
Well what a to-do? Nearly the Christmas concert that never was. We arrived intending an early start to accommodate the Christmas festivities only to find Mountnessing hall had no power. No one had told the committee or any of us that the hall had a system that cut power on excessive noise. This had been tripped at the last event in the hall. Eventually we found the hall caretaker and all was reset.
Steve Hubble’s concert; very well applauded, much humour and yes from his play list we knew it was Christmas. He stylised his music by introducing his own arrangements of recognised pieces. Expressed opinions were that it was a very good concert. Just a flavour of the music we heard. Gabriel’s Oboe, Grease lightning, the theme from the film – Ice Castles, Switched on Bach, I’ve got you under my skin, A Pans Pipe style rendition of, The lonely shepherd, Tom Jones’s ‘Just help yourself’, The look of Love, A Christmas assortment began with Steve’s favourite, Barry Manilow’s ‘Because its Christmas’, It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Have yourself a merry little Christmas, Slay Ride’ The Snowman’ Jingle Bell Rock, Santa Claus is coming to town, Silent night, Winter wonderland. The theme from the Christmas film – Home Alone, Chris Rea’s, Driving home for Christmas.
Jean and her team provided an assortment of Christmas fare for our enjoyment during a shortened interval this. It was a good evening!
Posted in Concert Review
Concert Review 27th Nov 2017 – Michael Sullivan
It was a cold November night perhaps that had an effect on the instrument Michael had with him to play? The adage, ‘Putting all your eggs in one basket’ never seemed more relevant. Perhaps we forget that’s what our artistes do when they sit in front of us with their ‘one’ instrument on which to entertain us for the evening. When things go wrong with the keyboard what do you do in front of that audience who expect to be entertained, but you as the performer are sat at the keyboard of a broken instrument? It was particularly the instruments foot pedals, these latched to the last note played and held the note. For Michael it must have been disastrous for his confidence and ability to entertain, it wasn’t really until the second half of the evening when Michael began to overcome problems with the instrument and his performance recovered.
A flavour of the pieces played included; Anything goes, Sleepy Shores, Liberty Bell, Puppet on a string, The Sound of Music, Buddy Holly pieces, Arrivederci Roma, A Gershwin selection, Tiger Rag, Maple leaf Rag, On the sunny side of the street, She wears red feathers, a TV medley including Cross Roads and Z Cars, and toward the evenings conclusion, MacArthur park.
Michael played a Yamaha Tyros 4 with 2 Yamaha MSR 250 powered speakers plus Ketron midi pedals linked to a Roland SC 33 sound module.
Posted in Concert Review Tagged with: A concert – The Organist Entertains, BOKC, brentwood, brentwood organ, Brentwood organ and keyboard, Live music, Mike Sullivan, mountnessing
Concert Review 23rd October 2017 – Rod Pooley
The evenings were drawing in, how fast the year is passing. Our guest for the evening was Rod Pooley. He opened with a sense of humour that continued throughout. “It was good to be back in Essex after such a long time… and the only way is??” Of course many replied “ESSEX…” He was, he thought a young man when last he performed for us, there was a bit of friendly banter between him and our booking secretary about how he came to be overlooked for so long and then the concert began with, ‘windmills of your mind’. Followed by “Charlie Chan”. Between each piece thereafter Rod continued with his humour which never failed to raise a laugh, he was himself the brunt of much of it. We listened to the realistic sound of ‘the big band’, ‘orchestras’ film music and much more. Some titles from the evening were, ‘O Mio Bambino Caro’, ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ ‘All I ask of you’ and ‘Home’ by Michael Bublé. The evening was very well received by all with much applause. Rod commented that he hoped he wouldn’t need to wait another 14 years to be asked back again.
I am informed that, for those who like to know these things…
The instrument that Rod was using was the TRX Organ system based on Yamaha Tyros 5 with Hammond pedals.
Posted in Concert Review Tagged with: A concert – The Organist Entertains, BOKC, bokc.BOKC, brentwood, brentwood organ, Brentwood Organ Keyboard club, concert, Essex, keyboard, Live music, mountnessing, Rod Pooley
Concert Review 25th September 2017 – Alex Payler
25th September and summer was over, the evenings drawing in and maybe that was why the turnout for our concert by Alex Payler was so disappointingly low. We even delayed the start of the evening hoping for a few more attendees.
Alex provided a captivating performance of live music with varied genres. He performed on his very capable Yamaha. There surely ought to have been content to please all. The evening opened with a lively rendition of Palladio soon contrasted by the minuet from the L’arlesienne suite by Bizet. As the evening progressed we heard music from film, stage, TV and the classics. Perhaps the style of his music should described as orchestral rather than Hammond, how the listener appreciated what they listened to would depend on their preference of style but the performance itself was absorbing, rounded and accomplished. At the end of the evening Alex was applauded and an encore requested for which he played Brazil by Ary Barroso
Alex’s instrument was the YAMAHA Electone Stagea ELS-02C. As well as being the first pro-player to import this very special instrument into the UK, he is now one of the leading exponents of this particular model in the world.
Alex’s concert content
PART 1 [Approx. Running Time—1:00Hr]
PART 2 [Approx. Running Time—1:00Hr]
Posted in Concert Review Tagged with: A concert - The Organist Entertains, Alex Payler, BOKC, bokc.BOKC, brentwood organ, Brentwood Organ Keyboard club, mountnessing
