Tommy Blaize Trio – Pizza Express Maidstone 13/07/2019

Tommy Blaize gave an outstanding performance to the delight of his packed Pizza Express audience.
My wife and I first saw Tommy Blaize when he was on stage at Ronnie Scotts performing a duet with Madeline Bell in January 2011. He made such an impression that we have watched him regularly at the 606 Club and Hideaway ever since. In the past he has appeared with Dave Arch and his band; this was the first time we had seen him perform with his own trio.
Tommy is a charismatic Liverpudlian with a beautiful voice. He showed that he is also a highly competent pianist too. I grew up in an era when Merseybeat was predominant. I find the Liverpudlian singing voice a reminder of my younger years.
The show started with a cover of Bobby Hebb’s ‘Sunny’, a hit in the 60’s and followed it with Jackie Wilson’s ‘I Get The Sweetest Feeling’ from the same era. This set the tone for the evening with songs from the 1930’s onwards. Tommy told stories about the songs and their influence on him. The highlight of the first set was Tommy’s very different version of Smokey Robinson and Ronny White’s ‘My Girl’ (recorded first by The Temptations) which is on his latest album ‘Life and Soul’ and to which he has added a very distinctive piano arrangement.
The second set was of the same high standard as the first with my highlights being versions of Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ and India Arie’s ‘Brown Skin’ (which may have been the only song of the night first released in the twenty first century).
The show closed with an encore of Carole King’s ‘You Got A Friend’ on which for the first time the audience responded well to Tommy’s request to sing along.
Tommy sang superbly and I thought deserved a louder response from his Maidstone audience, not for the first time I felt that the audience here was more reserved than its London equivalents.