WITH a set list that took in Cole Porter, The Beatles and Queen via genres that ranged from blues to soul, to gypsy jazz and straight jazz, Ben Holder kept his band and his audience on their toes.
A ball of energy through out the set – and changing from fiddle to keyboards and vocals – Holder proved to be as unpredictable as he was idiosyncratic.
With stalwart double bass player Mike Green, guitarist Jez Cooke and drummer Nick Milward providing staunch, unflashy support, all eyes and ears were on the charismatic front man.
As well as the covers, Holder also found time to play some of his own songs, ranging from the soft ballad Charlie, written about his four-year-old son, to the swinging Get Your Fix in New Orleans.
The rolling piano came to the fore during a raucous Get Back and a completely new and much faster Can’t Buy Me Love, with a violin refrain that took in elements of classical music as well punchy swing jazz inventions.
The concert was started with SOS, a piece that took in elements of Middle Eastern tonalities and shifting time signatures to show that not only could the band play, but that they had energy by the bucket load.
Why Can’t You Behave by Cole Porter was delivered from the piano with some good singing, while another Beatles song The Fool on the Hill was played at a slower pace.
The ensemble returned to jazz for their final song, It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing, which also quoted Lord of the Dance in a country hoe down coda, before morphing once again into Queen’s We Will Rock You.
The standing ovation led to the inevitable encore, a fast-paced Let the Good Times Roll which allowed for some indulgent boogie woogie stride piano and a piercing guitar solo.
The band have a serious pedigree, but know how to deliver a seriously good time.
