NORTHUMBRIAN MUSIC
NIGHTS
What we said about
The SNAKE DAVIS
BAND
Snake Davis Band Thrills Absolutely in Allendale
On a perfect evening, with a hall filled to capacity so that everyone was enveloped in total sensurround, with libations of estimable freshness and selectivity, the only disappointment imaginable from the Snake Davis Band was that their newest CD was not yet released.
Never mind -- the latest one, aptly titled 'The Music Man', sold in droves, so eager was the audience to take the music home with them. And such music, such moments, such heart-stopping entertainment!
I couldn't tell whether it was the presence of the saxophone master himself, universally acknowledged now up and down the country as one of the great ones, or the superb all-encompassing sound system, the atmospheric lighting or the intimate stage, or a brilliant combination of all of the above, but the fact was that the entertainment reached heights only dreamt of in bigger metropolitan venues.
That's the transcendent quality of the best entertainment, after all, when venues become irrelevant, and the music is all that is really there. And that's what Snakey gently provided, in the most modest and unassuming manner, letting the panoply of saxophones and the occasional flute do his talking for him.
Meanwhile, Steve Williams, on supremely accomplished bass guitar, created an opening in many women's hearts with his deep, steady attack, while the stand-in organist and drummer held their own superbly in the company of the two virtuosos.
Numbers from the CD like 'Second that emotion' and 'Between two seas' interspersed with the opener 'Love the one you're with', 'What's up', and 'Steppin' Out'. It was partly the sense of the familiar tunes developed with sublimely ecstatic colourations, like newly gilded filligrees of honeyed nectar, and partly the new adventure growing out of traditional material, like the Irish theme in 'Taking me back', also on the CD, that overwhelmed.
Strong, exciting stuff -- so much appreciated, so loudly and rapturously applauded, and so reciprocated by the band, who admitted to enjoying the intimate interchange between audience and performer that is possible in small venues like Allendale's Village Hall.
It doesn't take much, really, to put on such shows, so long as the promoters find the right band, and of all the bands passing through Tynedale over the past years, perhaps none is quite so right as the Snake Davis Band. Oh yes, there was one other disappointment by the end of the evening -- that would be the realisation that it will be another year hence before we hear them here again.
