Three Little Birds

Friends Meeting House, Brighton

Sunday 10th December, 2017

    Beginning with the standard After You’ve Gone, this vocal trio of Ela Southgate, Sara Oschlag and Rachel Simpson reunited for a concert with guitarist and arranger Matt Wall and bassist Dan Sheppard.

    The vocal harmonies worked beautifully, with the addition of some percussion for the bossa nova numbers such as Besame Mucho. The softer sound of Rachel’s fluglehorn, rather than trumpet, gave a much rounder sound to the ensemble.

    The more obscure Rogers and Hart number Dancing on the Ceiling worked really well, along with jazz classics such as Doodlin’, a difficult piece to perform, especially as a vocal trio but executed stylishly and confidently.

    The piece that worked best was the standard But Not For Me with Sara Oschlag singing Georgie Fame’s lyrics to Chet Baker’s classic solo, followed by an intelligent and creative guitar solo from Matt Wall.

Charlie Anderson

[Photo: Lisa Wormsley]