Sunday, August 3, 2008

Erin Bode at Nighttown 28 July 2008

Erin Bode made her fourth Nighttown appearance since 2006 last Monday in support of her new CD release "the little garden." She put on another wonderful show, backed by her three piece band of Adam Maness on keyboards and guitars; Syd Rodway on bass; and Derek Phillips on percussion.
What separates Ms. Bode from many of the talented jazz singers that regularly play Nighttown and other similar clubs around the country is the strength of her original material, often written along with keyboardist Maness. And, instead of doing covers of the same old standards, she and her band do some great jazz arrangements of classic rock songs, both popular and obscure.
This time around she featured songs off the new album, including "Out of Tone" and "New England Friends," with some great piano by Maness; several romantic ballads including "Too" and "It's All Your Fault"; and a South African influenced "In Cold Water." She performed several songs from her last album "Over and Over" including "Sydney Come Down" which featured Phillips' drumming talents; and "Holiday," which is probably her most popular original song. On the "Sweater Song," another new romantic ballad, her voice trailed off like a train whistle in the distance while her band took turns doing solos.
Amongst the covers they performed included Paul Simon's "Born at the Right Time" and "Graceland"; a beautiful arrangement of U2's "With or Without You"; and a terrific version of Bob Dylan's "Tonight I'll be Staying Here with You."
For more information on Erin Bode and her band and their music go to www.erinbode.com. As always, Nighttown has a lot of great shows coming up, including on Thursday, August 14, the Cleveland Jazz Project, and on August 16 & 17 the Hot Club of Detroit. For more information and a schedule of shows go to www.NighttownCleveland.com.

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