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Precious is a new-style weepie but one that is much more bracing than depressing
Precious
Theatre
Ian McKellen is captivating throughout. He delights in the play’s gallows humour, yet is also maudlin and poignant
Waiting for Godot
Theatre
Slight quibbles notwithstanding, this will set the West End’s stock riding high
Enron
Utterly, utterly brilliant. You really are in for a treat
Though 'Trilogy' has won rave reviews, I personally found myself exasperated after about an hour
We went on a quiet sunday evening and the food was excellent, but the experience let down by the service and ambiance
London,
Jack Massarik's rating
Reader rating
Description: The jazz and soul guitarist performs with his band.
Phone: 0207439 0747
Website: www.ronniescotts.co.uk
Email: ronniescotts@ronniescotts.co.uk
Trains: Tube: Leicester Square 
Extra info: Air Conditioning, Pub, Party Hire
Cutting-edge, no. Technically dazzling, hardly. Nonetheless it is a privilege to welcome one of the most authentic guitarists of backwoods America to Ronnie’s bandstand for the first time as leader.
Cornell Dupree, a charter member of the Muscle Shoals rhythm section from Memphis, doesn’t win instrumental polls. But without his über-hip touches a lot of jazz-soul-funk classics wouldn’t sound the same.
Where phrasing and tempo-setting are concerned, the adjective “laid-back” might have been coined for Cornell. He started out with King Curtis, Donnie Hathaway and Roberta Flack, and some say he didn’t get enough credit for making a legion of so-so superstars — Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Joe Cocker among them — sound great.
Opening with a blues, Things Ain’t What They Used to Be — “and we all know that” — he eased into a chair, hoisted his axe (a Telecaster copy with a humbucker pick-up nuzzling its maple neck) and spread warmth to every corner of the room, never settling for a lone note where a passing chord would sound richer.
Saxman Ronnie Cuber, on tenor instead of his usual baritone sax, gave the songs the fuzzy, preachy attack they needed. Watching the River Flow (by Dylan) and Mercy Mercy Mercy (by Joe Zawinul) produced his best solos.
Pianist James Allen Smith, bass-guitarist Frank Canino and drummer Clint DeGannon made a crisp rhythm team, though Smith could not recapture the late Richard Tee’s unique rapport with Dupree. That was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
He's one of my favourite guitarists and this is the first I knew about the gig- real shame.
A small point of correction. Cornell Dupree was not part of the Muscle Shoals crew. Originally from Texas he was then based in New York and made his name originally as guitarist with King Curtis, before hitting the session scene in NY and later being a found member of Stuff.
I totally agree about Richard Tee's piano playing, one of a kind.
- Andy Humphreys, London
