THE Steve King Big band played an interesting and musically varied set when they played for an attentive audience at the Cathedral Hotel.
With a full brass and rhythm section, the stage was packed – with many of the woodwind players playing two or sometimes three instruments. They were also joined during some of the set by the talented singer Lyn Dawes.
The music varied between feel good blues, jazz and pop, while Steve King played trumpet during the ensemble’s performance of Nessun Dorma and the ballad Softly from My Window.
They started with the feel-good Groovin High and the the theme from the television programme Bewitched, while Wide Open Spaces was a chamber jazz, with an expansive sound palette and some finely sketched soloing.
Lyn Dawes appeared for two cheerful songs, I Just Found Out About Love and It Had to be You.
The first half was closed by Pat Metheny’s Minera, the lively motif and rhythmic interplay giving the ensemble something of a challenge.
The second half offered even more variety, with a lively reading of Alright, OK You Win led by the full-throated blues voice of Lyn Dawes, who also sang a much changed version of Abracadabra by the Steve Miller Band.
Musically the highlight of the evening was saved until last with a fine interpretation of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue which went through several changes in mood and time signature.