Cherie Gears
On Tuesday evening last week Jazz and Blues Leeds played host to Cherie Gears and her band at the mine bar in Leeds Union. Support was provided by a recently formed student jazz band, Eat More Fruit. The event was most certainly a success and enjoyed by all who attended and being the first major event put on solely by my society I feel rather proud of our achievement.
The event started off fairly slowly with a few people arriving at a time but shortly before the support band started up a fair number were drawn in by the superb jazz being played out by the DJ and the club filled up somewhat. Eat More Fruit, despite being a newly formed student band with a minimal amount of practice under their belt, put on a most enjoyable performance. I was put completely in the mood for a good night of jazz by their introduction and in fact realised how long it was since I had seen some live jazz performed. Their display of various pieces of fruit on stage for each of their musical numbers was a nice and amusing touch to the proceedings. I certainly wouldn’t hesitate in getting them to come along and play at future Jazz and Blues events.
Cherie Gears didn’t disappoint either and after a brief break between the bands while the stage setup was changed we were instantly delighted by refreshing jazz vocals and superb accompaniment from Cherie’s jazz band. Despite her brief time in the music business Cherie’s vocal sound is already right up there with some of the other female jazz singers on the scene and her vocal range and conviction with which she sings her pieces are superb. Recommendations are certainly the order of the day here and if you have the chance to catch Cherie and her band live then I’d certainly recommend getting s ticket. Its refreshing to know that this is the kind of talent coming from graduates at the Leeds University School of Music and I certainly look forward to hearing other musicians that go into the music scene after graduation.
Our next event major event sees Danny Gough’s nu York State play the mine bar on 27th November with support from a fantastic funk/rock band, “ape”, so do remember to keep the date free, book your tickets and stay tuned to our website and mailing list for regular updates! If you want to read a review of nu York State you can read one I wrote a while back but they have most certainly got better since then.