BWW Reviews: ADELAIDE FRINGE 2014: PRE PC - SONGS BEFORE A TIME OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS Is A Wonderful Musical Exploration Of Songs That Don't Pussy-Foot Around.

Reviewed by Blake Parham, Tuesday 4th March 2014

An evening of marvellous raunchy blues and boogie-woogie beats were beautifully sung by Jayne-Anne Power in her show, Pre Pc - Songs Before A Time Of Political Correctness. Power's strong voice and sassy moves make this show thoroughly entertaining, while her anecdotes, though all to brief at times, are very amusing. Power performed a combination of well know, and rarely heard, sexy and hilarious blues songs including That Big Long Sliding Thing, and Big Ten Inch. Her moving performance of Billie Holiday's powerful indictment of racial abuse and murder by the Ku Klux Klan, Strange Fruit, was a highlight of the evening, and a very brave choice by Power.

Power is ably accompanied by Monique diMattina on keyboard and Mike Stewart on clarinet, flute, saxophone, and drums (although not all at once). Stewart's brush playing on the drums was particularly good and set an ideal atmosphere for many of the more relaxed songs. His saxophone playing, while admirable, did at times, unfortunately, lack some clarity. Monique diMattina's abilities on the piano are many and she accompanies very well, although her piano solos were lost due to the muddy tone of the electric piano.

This was a wonderful toe-tapping evening of raw and raunchy blues and jazz, sung wonderfully by Jayne-Anne Power. It is a pity that there was only one performance.

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