Live review - Jon Cleary’s Absolute Monster Recovery Show, Norwood Hotel

A big New Orleans night at the Norwood Hotel on Jan 3 offered a triple bill with something for everybody. Guitarist Sweet Baby James and drummer Rob Eyers opened the show with a classy set that included a moody “Spoonful” and a jumping version of the Rev. Wilkins’ “Prodigal Son”. Next, Los Tonos ranged through an eclectic country and folk menu, with plenty of verve and a big nod to Hank Williams. Both acts paved the way well for New Orleans pianist Jon Cleary.

Even without his Absolute Monster Gentlemen band, Cleary is a formidable act. Poised at a Roland keyboard, Cleary (in tweed jacket complete with a red pencil in the top pocket) delivered New Orleans standards with an evocative and individual flourish. The rolling beat of “Lonely Nights” lead into Curtis Mayfield’s yearning “Please Send Me Someone to Love”. Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill” was made fresh again as Cleary gave a vibrant tour of prominent figures in the New Orleans piano honour roll (no pun). His left hand anchored delightful runs from the right hand as his feet stomped away beneath the keyboard. He included some Professor Longhair and Huey Piano Smith’s infectious “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie ‘Flu”, before the seductive Cuban feel of his own sparkling, syncopated take on Jelly Roll Morton’s “The Crave”.

However many New Orleans piano styles there are, Cleary seemed to have mastered them. His version of Perez Prado’s “Havana” was captivating, by turns lilting and dramatic, but for me the highlight was the pared back “Help Me Somebody”, a wistful Georgie Fame kind of tune about a man who doesn’t see he has already lost the woman he loves to his best friend. It’s the kind of song that could easily have turned into cliché but was superbly played.

Cleary described “Stardust Melody”, his choice of encore, as ‘the baddest rhythm and blues tune there ever was’ and you had to hear it to believe it. He may be just one man and a piano but Jon Cleary is an energetic master of his field. N’Orleans at the Norwood? Wonderful!