I thought I was in for a good evening when the guys worked out a head arrangement during the sound check & the pianist used the theme from "Taxi" ( my favourite of the US tv imports) to get his level right. The sight of an accordion on stage worried me a little but probably reassured the 3 Italians at the next table who'd come for a meal and didn't know what to expect.
        What we got were the Blues Groovers: six young guys, mostly with goatees, looking like any company data processing department .
        Sadly, there were only six punters :me,( the saddo who comes almost every week), the aforementioned Italians, another couple also having a meal, two band girlfriends… and a dog (more of him later).
        The line-up was unusual: drums, bass guitar, lead guitar, pianist doubling keyboard (and a couple of toots on harmonica), accordionist doubling electric piano and a baritone sax player doubling on percussion: conga, claves, tambourine, shakers.
        "Is this Blues night?" the leader asked the barperson. "Whatever you like" was the reply.
        Well we got some blues, some jazz, some zydeco, the set list went out the window and the band enjoyed themselves, so did we. From the opener "C-jam blues" through some Louis Jordan numbers "Flip Flop and Fly" some Cajun style squeezebox ("Jambalaya", "Route 66"), even some gospel ("Jesus on the Mainline") , mostly instrumental with the accordion player and the guitarist sharing any vocals.
        When they came on, an aged spaniel waddled out of the green room and couldn't be coaxed back. He flopped down between bass & drums, but from the signals the pianist was making he had serious flatulence, so one of the girlfriends coaxed him to sit with them for the rest of the evening. Fortunately, I was on the other side of the club & upwind. At least for once I could blame the dog, not the beer!
        At the start of the second set the sax player brought on an upright bass and joined the pianist and drummer for two jazz standards: "Night & Day" and "Autumn Leaves".
        If you get a chance see these guys, no "latest one we wrote", no CDs for sale, no mechanical set list- just a happy bunch enjoying a wide range of blues & jazz styles and who really swung. We even got an encore, though the girlfriends and dog left before the end and we were down to six-all. I felt sorry they had such a poor audience, especially for the sax played with all those instruments to cart around, but both sides of the bandstand had a good time . I'll certainly hope to see them again. I'll miss the nest couple of weeks with bands billed as "soul" though I may give Clarence "Tex" Walker a listen at the end of the month.

RtS