Simone Craddock’s Jazz at the Movies at Ellington Jazz Club

Simone Craddock’s Jazz at the Movies at Ellington Jazz Club
Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Fringe World 2025 is coming into its final weekend, but the shows are still running thick and fast, not least of all at The Ellington. Perth’s premier jazz club will be pulsing until the festival’s final curtain call on Sunday night with a good dozen performances yet to come.

The last show in the run, Simone Craddock’s Jazz at the Movies, had its first airing last night.

Craddock was accompanied by Russell Holmes (piano and acoustic guitar), Zac Grafton (bass), and Bronton Ainsworth (drums) for a set of classic songbook numbers from the golden age of Hollywood. And a classic show it was—in every sense.

The band took to the stage, Holmes at the helm, champagne in hand, to warm the room with a long instrumental version of Missed the Saturday Dance (AKA, You Don’t Come Round Much Anymore). Sweet jazz at its best—a familiar tune pulled apart, improvised, extended, polished up, and put back together.

The audience’s anticipation suitably enhanced, Craddock swept onto the stage in a flowing Morticia Addams frock. Warmly welcoming the full house and her band, she sidled into a soaring rendition of Hello Dolly. And soar she did. For the next hour, she treated the room to the splendour of her West End-tempered voice. This woman can really sing; she knows how to hit those high notes and, with a single hand stretched high, hold them longer than most cantatrices can. There were many such moments—the climactic endings of Hello Dolly, Over the Rainbow, and Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend.

But soaring sweetly was not Craddock’s only singing skill on display. She crooned, swooned, got downright saucy, slinky, and sultry, and even flirted with the audience.

Her considerable acting experience came to the fore in her introductions to songs such as Blues In the Night (an homage to film noir), My Heart Belongs to Daddy (dedicated to the femme-fatale sirens of the silver screen and prologued with a smattering of their legendary lines), and that evergreen favourite Over the Rainbow (for all those homesick travellers and soldiers). She even risked her long, styled hair with Marilyn Monroe-inspired flounces on Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend.

Neither were her band short of dramatic moments. In the timeworn tradition of Ellington jazz shows, the opening and closing songs (Dolly and All of Me) were broken by a round robin of solos—piano to bass to drums. But that was not the players’ only moment; each had a chance to feature and define a different song.

As well as his many varied and stylish piano breaks, Russell Holmes put his significant jazz guitar skills on display with the haunting duet of the Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer masterpiece, Moon River. Zac Grafton, a most melodic bass player, had his turn on the spare bass-vocal duet that closed the Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer Blues In the Night, while Bronton Ainsworth almost stole the show with his Fred Astaire-inspired ‘tap-dance’ solo (sticks on the snare’s rim) for Irving Berlin’s Cheek to Cheek.

The high points of the night, though, were those moments where the full quartet came together in a tight and unusual arrangement—the semi-sleazy feel of Blues in the Night, the poised mix on Over the Rainbow’s middle eight, and the rollicking rhumba of My Heart Belongs To Daddy.

Given the age of many of these songs, it was little surprise that there were many older people in the audience. By the end of the night, they were all swaying and smiling, clapping their hands and tapping their feet, feeling young again. Such is the power of these timeless tunes when they are reconstructed with such understanding and verve.

Simone Craddock is a generous performer who effortlessly makes her audience happy. Stylish and seasoned, professional to the core, it is always a delight to hear her sing and watch her perform. With this exceptional ensemble, she presented an evening of cool and calm, yet lively jazz. It makes for a fitting, five-star finale to another successful Fringe World season at The Ellington.

For Valentine’s Day tomorrow, Craddock will also be delivering two performances of Songs From The Harp, a special candlelight show-in-the-round at the Ellington; that too promises to be a Fringe World highlight.

IAN LILBURNE

Photos by Linda Dunjey