Moonlight Saving Time at Brecon Jazz Festival 2011

Moonlight Saving Time
(Pizza Express Dean St. Monday 24th June 2013. Review by Maciek Pysz )

The group Moonlight Saving Time, led by Bristol based singer Emily Wright, played a very engaging set to a full house at Pizza Express Dean St last Monday, 24th June. The band plays popular standards and arranges them in a very interesting way. It takes a lot of skill to take someone else’s music and make it your own but they accomplished this task remarkably well with their picturesque interpretations. The clearly impressed audience rewarded every song with strong applause.

Having really enjoyed listening to the EP it was great to hear couple of favourites from the recording. Isley Brothers’ Footsteps In The Dark, very nicely arranged by bassist Will Harris and the introduction NICU by Emily Wright added as a special treat; Chick Corea’s Open Your Eyes You Can Fly was the highlight of the concert, you could really see the band shine here and deliver the music with great passion and energy..

Throughout the concert I couldn’t help but notice very nice chemistry between the band members. Leader and singer Emily Wright was projecting warmth and positive energy with her subtle and beautiful voice; pianist Dale Hambridge sounded excellent and played very well structured solos; trumpeter Nick Malcolm is the second voice of the band and plays with just he right amount of heart and soul; drummer Mark Whitlam and percussionist Rory Francis delivered high energy grooves and double bassist Will Harris kept everyone together with very solid bass playing.

Other standouts from the evening were Charles Mingus’ Goodbye Pork Pie Hat which blended naturally into Coltrane’s Naima. The encore, Orange Blossoms in Summertime, was at times reminiscent of Sade. All and all the band achieved something remarkable, they are bridging the gap between jazz and more accessible music in a very clever way, with musical quality aligned with the potential to be appealing to a wide age range.

Moonlight Saving Time is clearly a band with potential that could break into the mainstream market. Their EP comes highly recommended.