It’s always great to watch a show from the audience perspective every once in a while. This past weekend I caught pianist Grant Osborne’s show at Sharp 9—a local jazz club—with the Angela Bingham Quintet. The stage was filled with a who’s who of local jazz players and the show was sold out! I was thoroughly impressed with the music and we had a great time.

To start with, for those who don’t know the name Grant Osborne—this cat is one of the top keyboardists in town, playing both piano and organ equally well, although I believe he prefers to play jazz organ. While maybe not the most technical player out there, his ears and his phrasing are some of the best around and he is very thoughtful in his approach to piano (& organ) whether comping or taking a lead. I had the pleasure of meeting Grant last year on a studio session, where he did some piano work. Funny that I had absolutely no idea he played jazz organ as well and now here we are a year later, performing together in a new smokin’ organ trio called “The Organization”. Hat tip to the universal music gods on that one!

The other reason I wanted to visit Sharp 9 that evening was to see the main man, Mr. Scott Sawyer on guitar. Scott is like the main dude here in Durham. Everyone knows him and he is on all the good jazz gigs, not to mention he performs with a host of really good players in various ensembles around town. Scott is a legitimate jazz musician. While I had overheard that he was not degreed musically, one would never know as he commands the jazz guitar handily and is also a prominent teacher in town. While his role in Angela’s quintet may be more or less subdued, it was easy to hear that he is a great player and adds a nice touch and feel to the guitar role.

Angela Bingham was really the star of the show. She is a very good vocalist and has fantastic pitch. You would think that this is kind of obvious for a jazz singer but surprisingly, some jazz vocalists can’t hit all the altered scale melodies very well. Angela did her fair share of scatting and really shined as both a singer and performer. I’m not sure exactly why she had an old school telephone on stage with her, nor do I understand the imaginary phone calls from the artists who’s tunes she would perform. However, one can tell that she is real legitimate personality and it was light and lively to hear her talk about various oddities in between cuts.

The rhythm section was held down by Paul Creel on bass and Stephen Coffman on drums. While Stephen held it down nicely—he has a great soft touch and is dynamically solid—I didn’t get to hear a lot of “drums” unfortunately. I’m sure he can bring it up and probably does with other groups. Paul Creel was actually featured quite a bit; Angela and Paul did a nice duet in the middle of the first set. Paul seems like more of a Ron Carter kind of guy—not too flashy on leads but rhythmically solid and nice fretwork overall combined with great tone. This is the kind of bassist you want on a vocal jazz gig.

The quintet played two sets. I didn’t write down the list and only knew about half the tunes but needless to say there were some nice, interesting arrangements in there. My favorite was Angela’s take on “Magic”, the old school Olivia Newton John hit in the 1980’s. She also did a real different take on “Leaving on a Jet Plane”; even though very interesting, probably one of my least favorite songs. Surprisingly, Grant was featured as a lyricist on a Keith Jarret ballad—who knew Grant could write so well? There were a couple of fun standards (more or less); “I Know the Way to Brooklyn” and Duke Ellington’s “I’m a Lucky So and So” got the crowd moving. As always, there were a few cool bluesy numbers thrown in for the band to stretch out. All in all it was a fun and entertaining couple sets.

As far as the Sharp 9 venue goes, these guys are great. It’s a non-profit setup that not only features an incredible jazz calendar filled with local and touring artists, but is also a home to music instruction and jazz workshops that help younger players hone their skills along side the big cats. The performance room is a real cozy, quaint environment to see great live jazz and sounds equally as nice. While off the beaten path here in the Durham area, it is definitely a legitimate music destination to see some of the best local players.

Looking forward to catching many more shows here!