Music
Gery Scott’s 75th Birthday Concert
School of Arts Cafe
Tuesday October 6, 1998
by Michael Foster
Age has not wearied her, as she showed in one of her best performances for some time.
She worked the audience with all the skill of her years on stage, the intimacy of the cafe, and the warmth of a room full of people who wanted to hear her sing, again, the songs she loves.
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| Gery Scott - worked the audience with skill |
Another emotion entered the equation when, to open the second set, the Stephen’s family had three guests offer the gift of song. Eve Wheeler, one of the best of Scott’s present jazz vocals students, Colin Slater with whom Scott recently staged A Touch of the Sinatras, and Kristen Cornwell, one of Scott’s first and best students.
Cornwall, down from Sydney, was herself lifted at the news that she was in the finals of the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz vocal competition later this month.
Scott was backed by Tony Magee on piano, Scott Dodd on bass and Colin Hoorweg on drums, all in great form, Dodd and Hoorweg each contributing moving solos.
The program, interspersed with the odd anecdote, philosophical or otherwise, flowed as it always does, with a number of medleys enabling many great songs to be sung. She opened with Once in a Lifetime and closed with That’s All. In between there was an anthology of favourites from blues to Beatles, including The Best is Yet to Come. Please!
First published in The Canberra Times, Thursday October 8, 1998