'The Sound of Movies' at the National Concert Hall
Featuring Fight Like Apes' May Kay, Duke Special and the Cian Boylan quartet
Brian Casey, 06 Jul 2010
May Kay of Fight Like Apes and Duke Special were on hand as guests to pianist Cian Boylan and his quartet in the National Concert Hall for a trip through some of the most memorable movie scores of all time.
An evening of inventive, jazzed up versions of the hits from the movies showcased the incredible musicianship, energy and humour of Irish pianist/composer, Cian Boylan and his international quartet. Filling the John Field room with the beautiful natural overtones of Piano, Double Bass, Saxophone and incredible drumming the quartet skipped cheekily through numbers from Taxi, Taxi Driver, Star Wars and as one of the running jokes of the night suggested, any movie with Tom Cruise in it!
Punctuating the mostly instrumental repertoire were a number of arrangements for guest vocalists on the night, May Kay of Irish synth pop racketeers Fight Like Apes, and the theatrical Belfast man Peter Wilson, better known to us as Duke Special, which delighted and surprised an eclectic audience.
Despite a small slip up at the beginning of one number, and a version of 'Miss Misery', taken from the sound track of Good Will Hunting that served to prove the immense difficulty of covering an artist as unique as Elliott Smith, Duke Special's contribution added colour and life to proceedings.
However May Kay's pitch perfect vocals, owning each and every word she sang impressed the most. Stepping out from the usual haze of fuzzed up synthesisers, digitally distorted bass lines and colossal drums from her adventures with Fight Like Apes, she maintained her style while stepping things up with subtle enhancements - proving she is equally at home in the delicately nuanced acoustic setting of a jazz recital as any raucous punk blow out.
The night ended with a playful duet from May Kay and Duke Special as an encore, which once again saw the quartet enjoying accompaniment as much as the admirable virtuosity they showed in earlier instrumental numbers.
All in all a fantastic performance, subtly presenting the contrasts in styles of jazz, classical and contemporary music, while providing no shortage of humorous banter and golden movie moments.
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