The Times review. Ronnie Scott's 2011

Ray Gelato at Ronnie Scott’s, W1

Clive Davis
Last updated December 21 2011 1:17PM

In Soho, at this time of year, you still half-expect to bump into a zoot-suited George Melly as he saunters towards another of his late-night shows in Frith Street. Four years after his death, it still seems odd not to hear the old reprobate re-enacting the tragi-comic love affair of Frankie and Johnny or reminiscing about his Surrealist past.
The saxophonist Ray Gelato goes a long way to filling Melly’s shoes, though, especially when his showband, the Giants, revs up on that old stand-by, Airmail Special. His jokes may lack Melly’s patina of worldly sophistication — he is more Wheeltappers & Shunters than Chelsea Arts Club — yet Gelato’s festive residency has deservedly become an institution in its own right. The jazz temple becomes a Vegas lounge for a night or two.
Not many bandleaders have a cookbook to flog as well. Gelato cheerfully plugs his Cookin’ with Ray tome, pays cheesy musical homage to that Soho landmark Bar Italia and smuggles a reference to Nigella Lawson into his exuberant vocals on My Kind of Girl. As for the swing recipes, Louis Prima’s legacy remains the prime ingredient, although the drummer Sebastiaan de Krom gets the opportunity to channel the spirit of Dizzy Gillespie with demure lead vocals on the novelty love song Ooh Shoobie Doobie. Playing the role of sidekick, for a change, Gelato supplied the necessary pinch of vaudeville.
Compact but endlessly versatile, the immaculately drilled Giants matched him through every change of gear. Another of his old favourites, the keening instrumental version of Night Train, evoked the gritty R&B of Earl Bostic. “It’s tough to play that one now,” sighed the grey-haired Gelato as the tune reached its explosive conclusion.
In a buoyant opening set, the influence of Prima and jumping jive master Louis Jordan was at its brightest on the likes of Up a Lazy River and a devilishly brisk treatment of As Time Goes By. There’s a case for saying that When You’re Smiling smacks of chicken-in-a-basket, but the tribute to Bobby Darin on Mack the Knife fused showbiz with first-rate musicianship. Gelato’s sell-out run continues until Friday, and he returns to Ronnie Scott’s in the run-up to New Year (Dec 29-31) for a series of duets with the singer Kai Hoffman