The Frances Knight Trio at the Lighthouse

The Lighthouse, Deal
6th September 2015

It's always great to see Frances Knight playing, such a graceful and inventive keyboard style she's got. This was with her trio involving Vince Clarke on drums and Alex Keen on bass, supplemented on a few numbers by Paul Zec on alto sax and Daniel Cano on trumpet (who I saw playing with Glasshouse last time I visited the Lighthouse).

Two sets, the first truncated by some technical problems (handled in a very expert and relaxed way by the Hatton brothers who run the place), including some samba-tinged jazz, "Spooky", and this John Taylor number which Frances is just introducing into her repertoire (she was apologetic about its imperfections, but it still sounded great):
 

I had to cycle off for my train just before the end of the second set, when they were in the midst of "Ode To Billy Joe". Frances can seemingly make everything sound good, and in a really effortless way. There was a particularly weird moment when I was mulling over a strange dream involving a mysterious female friend having ascended a tower of people in the back garden of the house where I used to live in Exeter and broken in through an upstairs window, and Frances announced they were going to play something from her "misspent youth", a Beatles number I instantly recognised but couldn't identify. It turned out to be "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window", of all things. Spooky indeed!

Here they are at the Lighthouse during the summer, playing the title track from their last album, Frog In Love:
 

I ran into Frances in Canterbury a couple of days later, was going to mention the jazz jam at Bramleys that night, but didn't for whatever reason. But she showed up anyway (the first time she's been down there, as far as I know). Dulcie who co-organises it is now taking piano lessons with her, a nice connection. Hopefully she'll become a regular in 2016.