Jazz review: Buddy Greco

Published on Wednesday 24 June 2009 19:43

BUDDY GRECO *** COMMUNITY CENTRE, NAIRN

BUDDY Greco will be 83 in August, and if the singer is trading on past glories in the vocal department these days, he can still deliver a slick and very entertaining greatest hits show, with a little help from his wife, Leslie Anders, the fifth Mrs Greco. The family connection extended to his trio, in which Buddy Greco Jr played drums.

This concert was a harbinger of the Nairn Jazz Festival in early August, and drew a full house to hear the man who has shared a stage with Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra and The Beatles, surely a unique distinction. The shortcomings in his voice were apparent from the outset, and he adopted a style that verged on reciting the lyrics rather than singing, often at very fast tempos.

Greco is also a decent pianist, and clearly revelled in playing Music Nairn's excellent Steinway. They threw in several instrumentals, including a nice reading of Errol Garner's Misty and a version of I Can't Get Started in which he managed to quote both a very un-seasonal Christmas Song and Bobby Timmons's Moanin'.

Greco's 60 years in show business helped him compensate for current shortcomings. Leslie Anders added a fine voice and glamour to proceedings when she joined the trio for the second half of the set, which included a well-polished routine on Greco's marital record as well as fine versions of Feelin' Good and Peggy Lee's Fever.