Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Hugh Jay performs 'My Girl' at the Flame Club, Twin Gates Plaza, Eastwood Park Road on Saturday night. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
WITH THE Bare Essentials Band, all of 35 years young, on the stand, there was more than the essentials of live music at the Flame Club, Andy's Place, Twin Gates Plaza, on Saturday night.
Jeffrey Brown 'spoke' volumes with the saxophone, Leonie Edwards sang and swished an impressive pair of brown clad hips, Errol Lee's invitation for the audience to sing along was taken up enthusiastically, Ben Frampton delivered Otis Redding classics to chants of 'more', Hugh Jay found his sunshine on a Saturday night and the pair of Ossie D and Stevie G ended it all in uptempo Paul Simon style on the downside of midnight.
UNDERSTATED BODY MOVEMENT
Brown, playing with understated body movement, started at an easy pace for his first two songs, picked it up a bit on the third and exchanged a solo with the pianist on his fourth, all to enthusiastic applause. Broadcaster Fae Ellington tugged Ossie D onto the floor for a 'rucumbine' and Brown put feeling into Dance With My Father. The hands went up in the seated audience as Brown hit "I shall forever lift my eyes" on Amazing Grace, ending on that Christian note.
"We are new, we are trying to get the live music going, trying to get the atmosphere," Ossie D, who handled hosting duties, said, before bringing on Leonie Edwards, the only female performer of the night.
She started in a reggae groove with Someone Loves You Honey, on which a sassy Edwards asked "you don't know the song?" Many, however, agreed that 'love is real' and Edwards went sentimental and overseas as she sang "lonely makes my brown eyes blue". There were no blues on Feel Like Dancing, the Flame Club filled with 'ooo-ooo-ooos' and there was an unheeded call for a 'forward' as she segued into 'baby be true, and I'll give the world to you'.
Edwards went soca and hip swishing, one hand with the microphone and the other on a hip, going slowly and then more quickly, smiling slightly throughout as the audience burst into cheers. She was disappointed, though. "I thought I would have some competition up here. I was trying to tease this gentleman, but it not quite working. Is what happen?" she asked.
"My wife is here. Wha bout de res' a you? In my time," Ossie D said, doing a brief demonstration with a microphone stand that delighted the audience.
Errol Lee later told the audience that they were the back-up singers, but they turned out to be more than that as they sang the opening line of Grooving Out On Life as the band struck up, before Lee sang a line. "Big finish now," he coached them and they obliged with a strong ending 'la la la'.
He instructed Ossie D to 'forward' for Roy Shirley's Feel Good, Ossie D putting in the signature Shirley walk and then going down on the floor to stretch out and sing. Errol Lee said his favourite line in the song was 'the prettiest legs'.
"Them days ladies used to wear mini. Them time no girl could hold on in a bus," he said, to laughter. "To all the ladies in mini skirts who think you are writing history, it has been written already," he said.
SUPPORT VOCAL DUTIES
With Lee and Edwards doing support vocal duties, Frampton later started with the teasing Stop Benjie Stop, before moving to Sand In My Shoes. But the explosion came when Frampton went into Otis Redding's Dreams To Remember, then Pain In My Heart. And the night went ballistic with These Arms of Mine, with which Frampton ended. Or, rather, tried to end, as there were chants of 'more, more'.
Frampton returned as required and as he sang "I've been loving you too long" the cheers went up again.
Hugh Jay delivered I've Got Sunshine and the night's performances ended on a jam with Stevie G and Ossie D alternating verses and doing co-ordinated moves.
This Saturday, live music at Flame continues with guitarist Dwight Pinkney.
