Gig review: The Manhattan Transfer

Published on Friday 13 November 2009 18:03

THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER **** CONCERT HALL, PERTH

THE Manhattan Transfer have been around for four decades, and the current line-up of Tim Hauser, Janis Siegel, Alan Paul and Cheryl Bentene has been together since 1978. This was the only UK date on their current tour, and they served up their trademark vocal interplay with characteristic polish and undiminished energy, backed by an excellent four-piece band led by keyboard player Yaron Gershovsky and featuring fine guitar work from Adam Holly.

The show contained plenty of familiar hits from their long career, but they began by reminding us that they are still active creators with a track from their new CD, dedicated to the music of Chick Corea. The cascading harmonies of their vocal version of Corea's iconic Spain underlined the thought that goes into their more contemporary work, a quality evident in an edgy vocalisation of Miles Davis's Tutu, with lyrics by Jon Hendricks.

The fun side of their music was equally prominent, ripping into such long-standing favourites as Four Brothers (complete with a very convincing "trumpet" solo from Siegel), Tuxedo Junction, Birdland, and an encore of Chanson d'amour and Choo Choo Ch'Boogie, all delivered with glorious split-second timing and exuberant rhythmic energy.

All four are fine singers but their real strength is collective, drawing on models of harmony singing that include the jazz vocalese of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross and the doo-wop groups of the 1950s, overlaid with their own distinctive and sophisticated signature.