The Fezz play the music of Steely Dan, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 26/07/2026.

Line up as listed on the Black Mountain Jazz Facebook page;

John Denton – guitar & vocals
Alan Davies – guitar
Colin Warren – bass
Morris Windsor – drums & backing vocals
Robin Powell – keyboards
Kate Riches - vocals
Francis Gryspeerdt – saxophones
Toby Wolfe - saxophone

plus uncredited trumpeter

Open your mind to good music that’s different.

There have always been divisions in music. Sides to be loyal to, especially when it comes to jazz. Remember the fifties – no sorry, you’re too young. That was a time when, as far as jazz was concerned, you were either a modern or a mouldy old figge – modern or traditional jazz. And feelings ran high. Remember the mods and rockers? Same idea. It was a time of ‘I know what I like and I like what I know’. Perhaps it still is.

I felt a little bit the same when I was approached to be a guest reviewer for the band Fezz who were appearing at Black Mountain Jazz. Was this going to be jazz? Or would it be rock with the label jazz? So this is really a situation where an open mind is important. You won’t know until you hear it.

And that’s what happened.

This was a nine piece band and I did wonder if they would all fit into the performing space at the Melville Theatre. They did, complete with a load of sound equipment. As well as instruments you might expect, two guitars, bass guitar, keyboard, drums there was a brass or horn section – two saxes and a trumpet, they also had a singer. As well as her, three members of the band also added their voices. Quite a crowd maybe, but the sound they made was very authentic.

The band attracted a reasonably sized audience, because the seating space was also full with very few empty seats, as I found since I was a bit late having been caught up in delays on the way.

The music played?

It was as it said on the tin. It was based on the repertoire of Steely Dan but they are not a tribute band. They have their own style. Lead singer and guitarist, John Denton says that there are elements of improvisation in their performances. None of their programme is Steely Dan note for note.

What are the other influences? For example there are traces of guitarist Peter Green in some of the numbers which are part of a carefully planned programme. Rehearsal though, is not that easy because getting the band together when so many of its members are occupied elsewhere, is not easy. So although rehearsal time is limited or perhaps non-existent, the performance is ordered and polished. Everyone knows what they’re doing, when they should do it and they do it! The resultant
show bears this out. The entire band members are music readers and the programmes are well planned, which leads to their professional delivery.

Their programme at the Melville included staples and Steely Dan favourites like Do It Again, Rikki Don’t Lose That Number and Reelin’ In The Years plus many more favourites.

The horn section, all three of them, were tucked away in the corner of the stage area but they certainly added to the overall sound as did their singer, who again, was reading her part and knew exactly when she needed to sing to add to the mix.

So, even if you are not particularly a fan of Steely Dan or feel that this is rock music and not jazz this is a band that are well worth a listen. They’re lively, entertaining and above all will provide a good evening’s entertainment and they deserve a listen.

What is there not to like?

JOHN HELLINGS

Ian Mann adds;

My thanks to John Hellings for agreeing to review this show in my absence.

As a huge Steely Dan fan I was disappointed to miss this performance but it’s interesting to read a review from somebody who is probably a lot less familiar with Steely Dan’s music than I am. I could probably have sung along with every word and hummed every instrumental solo. And no doubt Pam would have been up and dancing all night.

I never got to see the Dan in their 70s heyday,  I was too young and they rarely toured, and in more recent times their shows have been too big and expensive. The fact that there are probably lots of people who love the band but never got to see the real thing probably explains why there are so many Steely Dan tribute bands around - and why they are so popular.

I’ve seen a couple of other Steely Dan acts, Nearly Dan and The Royal Scammers and I’ve checked out The Fezz online. All these acts have the instrumental arrangements and solos off pat, but none of the vocalists even try to emulate the unique voice of Donald Fagen. Also Steely Dan were so anti-image that nobody tries to look like them either.

From what I’ve seen of The Fezz and after reading John’s review of what was obviously a very successful evening at BMJ I’d very much like to check out The Fezz for myself sometime.

You might well ask where I was as I’m clearly such a big Dan fan. Well, I was at Smokey Joe’s in Cheltenham, a venue that The Fezz has played, at the annual EppyFest, a small scale festival with something of a prog rock theme.

I attended this as a paying customer and had purchased my ticket long before The Fezz show was announced. One of the main attractions on the Sunday was a performances by Living In Shadows, the rock project of jazz vocalist Zoe Gilby, a regular visitor to BMJ. I’ve seen Zoe sing jazz on many occasions but never seen the Living In Shadows band before. This was definitely rock music, but rock performed with genuine intelligence and musicality. I’ll be seeing them again on September 20th at the Marr’s Bar in Worcester when they will play a more substantial set than the fifty minute Festival slot here.

The Sunday headliners at EppyFest were the Pete Roth Trio, led by guitarist Pete Roth and featuring big name drummer Bill Bruford, once of Yes, King Crimson, Genesis and his own Earthworks band. I’ve been listening to his music for more than fifty years. Bruford, now aged seventy seven, is playing as well as ever and the chance to see such a celebrated musician playing in such a small venue was an opportunity not to be missed. The Roth trio were superb and played a seventy five minute set of largely original material which will appear on their forthcoming album “Group Chat”.

It was a thrill to meet the erudite Mr. Bruford after the show, a musician who adroitly straddles the divide between rock and jazz, albeit in a very different way to Steely Dan.

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