Sunny Vicars – Sunday April 11 2021
It’s a beautiful Autumn afternoon in Brisbane. Under a soft blue, Sunday sky, the river is flowing gently by the Brisbane Jazz Club.
Inside, a super-cool quartet of Jazz musos is warming up the audience. Setting the scene.
That’s Damian Sim on piano, Robert Corcoran on tenor sax, Andrew Shaw on double bass, and Dom Machen on drums.
This is a great band, with a smoo-oooth sound. And the audience is quickly settled into a sweet Sunday vibe.
So, we now know just how good this afternoon is going to be….and the best is yet to come!!
Then Sunny glides in. Sweet. Quirky. Old-fashioned gal. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, may we introduce Ms. Sunny Vicars’.
Sunny and her band are here to present, ‘It Might As Well Be Swing: Top songs from the Swing era. Ballads to Bop. Sizzling hot to icy cool’.
And it is quite a journey. Quite a history. Quite a set-list.
There’s 1918’s ‘After You’ve Gone’, and from the 20’s, songs like ‘It Had to Be You’ and ‘Makin’ Whoopee’.
From the 30’s, songs like ‘Exactly Like You’ and ‘I Thought About You’.
Songs from the 40’s included, ‘Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby’ and ‘A Slow Boat to China’.
And among songs from the 50’s, there’s ‘If I Were a Bell’ and ‘Aged and Mellow Blues’.
And from 1960, Sunny gave us, ‘Hit the Road Jack’, featuring a glamorous chorus line of friends, Irene McLeod, Pam Hodgson and Carole Marco.
Sunny’s bio tells us that, ‘…she began singing professionally at the age of sixteen in the Melbourne Big Band scene and is an accomplished small-group singer with an unmatched vocal clarity and impeccable phrasing, that will delight any listener’.
And that is what we were treated to today…her first solo show at the Brisbane Jazz Club.
This is style. This is class.
Sunny is an experienced performer. A natural. She has the professional’s touch, with just the right amount of casual. And at the mic, she engages easily with her audience…chatting comfortably, affably and effectively.
And it is all wrapped up in her charming personality and sweet smile.
There is velvet. There is silk. There is heart-melting sensitivity. There is cheek and sass when called for. And there is fun.
There is perfect timing and beautiful phrasing. And Sunny knows these songs so well. Each word, each perfect note, loaded with the lived story, the emotion, the feeling and the spice.
Yes, Sunny is living those songs. There on our stage. And in working so well with the band, she is clearly, the fifth instrument!!
Sunny, Damian, Robert, Andrew, Dom. The music. The songs. The Brisbane Jazz Club on a sunny Sunday afternoon. A perfect fit!!
Thank you, each one of you, for entertaining our enthusiastic audience, and for sending them home happy and satisfied. And eager to come back.
Alan Smith
Brisbane Jazz Club