Evita was not quite as wonderful as my long wait to see it had conditioned me to expect.  It covered the tricky task of melding the political and personal stories pretty well and while the staging wasn't wildly imaginative it provided appropriate settings.  The cast and orchesta did a good job but I was never on the edge of my seat, I wasn't much moved and I found the music a bit lacking in variety.

I nearly didn't see A Few Good Men, a sell-out at The Roxy but fortunately I was able to attend the dress rehearsal the night before it opened.  I've dress rehearsed in lots of shows myself and this was an extremely well managed one, more like a preview.

It's not an uninteresting play but the presentation made the show for me.  It's a courtroom drama about the killing of a marine by two fellow soldiers with what you might call sub-plots involving the relationships between the lawyers dealing with the case and between the various officers and men of the unit concerned.  So far so ordinary.  But we don't just sit watching as people shuffle on and off stage.  We are immersed in the action, sitting on swivel chairs with scenes being played all around us.  It's a smashing idea and works very well.  Thom Dibdin gives a perceptive review here.

I managed to get to only one Fife Jazz Festival gig this year but it was a bumper afternoon at the Carnegie Hall which I enjoyed immensely.  There were six groups of musicians performing ten sets spread over three performance spaces.  I got to four and although I didn't see Dave Milligan doing his solo set he played in Colin Steele's quintet so the only group I saw nothing of was Ken Mathieson and his orchestra.

American tenor player Scott Hamilton did a set with Brian Kellock on piano.  He produces a lovely warm, full sound admirably suited to his repertoire of ballads and standards.  I loved his low notes. Listen here.

A complete contrast was provided by Fergus McCreadie, the young pianist who is the talk of the steamie in Scottish jazz circles.  His trio played their own compositions some of which are as yet nameless.  He announced he'd welcome suggestions.  Here they are in Edinburgh last year.

Brass Gumbo gave it laldie as they bashed through a set of New Orleans tunes arranged to suit their lively spirit.  This was get up and dance music but nobody did.

Even in The Darkest Places is the title of a CD about to be released by Colin Steele and his Quintet.  Their set consisted of the tunes on the CD.  All are Colin's compositions and they are super. I can't find a foretaste on the web so I encourage you to pre-order the album and in the meantime listen to a previous piece.