FABULOUS AND FAULTLESS AVEC JOIE DE VIVRE- Melanie O’Reilly Trio
Wexford Arts Centre
Report: Jackie Hayden – Wednesday September 11th, 2024
This thoroughly enjoyable afternoon show was a beguiling taster for Melanie O’Reilly’s Jazz Quartet event planned for November 2nd. It will have a French jazz theme, especially appropriate now given the singer’s recent appointment to a key post with the Wexford-Normandy Cultural Association.
The turn-out proved that the Wexford Art Centre’s innovative series of afternoon events has its eager fans, and O’Reilly, with Carole Nelson (formerly of Zrazy on piano) and Adrian Jackson on double bass, saw that their time was more than well spent. The relative sparseness of the accompaniment and the intimacy of the venue allowed the quality and expression in O’Reilly’s voice to shine and sparkle. What’s more, the audience loved it.
Sticking close to an agenda of classic jazz songs and allowing generous space for Nelson and Jackson to display their soloing credentials, O’Reilly delivered faithful interpretations of songs from the last century and penned by some of the best-loved songsmiths of that era.
The musical menu ranged from a cool ‘Skylark’ from the pen of Hoagy Carmichael to ‘Beginning to See the Light’ recorded by Duke Ellington and many other stalwarts of the genre. Those who only know Billie Holiday as one of the finest vocalists of all time were reminded of her songwriting skills with a version of her ‘Rocky Mountain Blues’ delivered with class and conviction, while Fats Waller’s ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ came in an upbeat version a la Anita O’Day. The sun outside had to compete with the warmth generated inside via some bossa nova as in Antonio Carolo Jobim’s ‘Wave’ and Kenny Dorham’s ‘Blue Bossa.’
Other standards to delight the audience were ‘Autumn Leave’, ‘Cheek to Cheek’ and ‘Fly Me to The Moon’. Their afternoons well and truly swung, they left, no doubt with November 2nd evening performance and another Swing into the afternoons session on December 4th already in their sights.