Cool Hand Luke
Luke Thomas and the Swing Cats
Luke Thomas is surely the King of Swing.
If ever an artist owned the performing space, it’s Luke.
He moves around the stage like a cat. He’s on the edge of the audience, around his six man band with guest vocalist Helen O’Dwyer introducing, encouraging, collaborating, demanding more; and he’s loving it.
I guess this is the stick that moves this band.
Everyone of them clearly loves playing, performing, harmonising, soloing and joining in on the vocals. And just love that connection with the audience.
The love between the players and the singer is so strong that you could touch it and their energy would solve out power outages.
Glenn Miller’s classics keep popping up. We’re off to In the Mood, Brown Jug and Pennsylvania 6-5000 before Luke Thomas enters with a jazzy, bluesy Sing, Sing, Sing that goes on forever with asides, introductions, improvisations with diddleeboobopboos ringing out all over the shop.
Puttin’ on the Ritz just about sums Luke up because tonight is a ritzy, glitzy night of swing and jazz that has the audience swinging, swaying, clapping along.
When Luke moves into big name numbers, the audience of a certain age are all there with him. “King of the Road...It don’t mean a thing…Oh when the saints…Hello Dolly” has the house singing along.
Sometimes Luke lets the audience off and the house responds with one voice.
Everyone loves Luke’s “Moon River” and joins in. Memories flood back of Henry Mancini’s melody with lyrics from Johnny Mercer. "Moon River" was originally performed by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film “Breakfast at Tiffany's”, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1962 The song also won the 1962 Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Song of the Year and in 1999 Mancini's recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Tonight’s audience are in sepia memoryland as they recall Audrey Hepburn’s waiflike figure, sitting on the fire escape in the “original little black dress”, as she dreams of a romance “waiting around the bend”. Magic.
Guest star Helen O’Dwyer’s entry is beyond glamorous.
In a glitzy red sequined dress and tiara, the stage lights up.
Helen’s got the likeability factor and opens with Etta James classic “At Last”.
Helen’s duet with Luke on Sinatra’s “Somethin’ Stupid” brings a warm glow to the house.
There’s a Dean Martin sequence, Frank Sinatra classics, Tom Jones hits and a fifties pot pourri of timeless hits that sees us out and has me humming Bobby Darin’s iconic Mack the Knife as I hit the Mall.
