From the moment he strolled out onstage–no cane, unlike his House, M.D., character–Hugh Laurie had the Benaroya Hall audience firmly on his side, so it wasn’t really necessary, in a burst of Englishness, for him to soft-shoe over having the temerity to come before us to play music out of New Orleans’s history. (In another burst of Englishness, Laurie made this the first New Orleans blues concert I’d attended with a toast to the Queen in advance of her Diamond Jubilee.)
Laurie plays piano and guitar, but, he instructed the audience, the real musical thrills were going to come from the other musicians onstage: the Copper Bottom Band. They were the gleaming Rolls Royce and its throaty purr, he said, he was merely the hood ornament–throwing his arms back in the classic Spirit of Ecstasy pose.
If you missed the evening, Laurie’s New Orleans songbook can be found on CD; Let Them Talk contains many of the songs performed. I have to confess to rating his piano playing higher than his guitar, and both higher than his singing. It’s not that he has a terrible voice, but it isn’t suited to every one of these songs he clearly loves, and which often have been sung by the best.
READ MORE: http://thesunbreak.com/2012/06/07/hugh-laurie-gives-benaroya-the-new-orleans-blues/
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