Kate Walker, voice, Andrew Daldorph, piano, and Chris Gradwell, clarinet, saxophone and flute

Seaton Music Club has staged concerts for many combinations of instruments and styles in its 60 years of existence.

As part of their jubilee celebrations, an extra concert to the published programme was given by Devon-based artists Music Deco.

The trio (Kate Walker, voice, Andrew Daldorph, piano, and Chris Gradwell, clarinet, saxophone and flute) are all classically trained musicians who play classical music, but have a special interest in the popular music of the 1920s-1940s. They have made a name with several local performances, in their own words, ‘conjuring the very essence of the Deco period’ providing an evening of jazz, light music, comedy and night-club atmosphere.

The great names from the period made up most of the programme – George Gershwin and Noël Coward. Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue/ Ain’t necessarily so (clarinet and piano) performed on a cabaret-style stage-set transported us back to the 1920s.

The audience could also enjoy other Gershwin numbers – I got Rhythm, Naughty Baby and Little Jazz Bird.

Two Noël Coward songs brought us the composer’s verbal humour as well as his music – I Went to a Marvellous Party relates -with relish - various unexpected events at a society function, and Kate Walker used her acting skills to good effect here.

Mad About the Boy was again performed with drama – who would have guessed how many phrases rhyme with ‘mad about the boy’?

Two other composers featured were Billy Mayerl with his Jazzaritrix played by Andrew Daldorph, and William Walton, with two numbers from his suite Façade (including the well-known Popular Song, no doubt remembered by many from piano learning days!).

The first half ended with a medley of Coward songs and the second half with a Gershwin Fantasy. With its mixture of humour, wit and sentiment and a range of musical colour, the evening was a treat for devotees of the Deco period and non-experts alike.

Peter Dawson