Don’t miss the rockin’ wonder from Down Under known as Pugsley Buzzard, playing his third solo show at Bird & Beckett..

Pugs is at once a rollicking stride piano master and a gravelly voiced singer, plumbing the extremes of dark fate and wry, whisky-soaked self-reflection. He plays barrelhouse blues & boogie woogie, growls his dark & titillating songs, and pumps out magnificent Harlem stride with a monstrous left hand and a dextrous right one.  A Sunday afternoon of good company, good music & a glass of decent wine… add a book to that mix, and, why, it’s magic!

Read on for a rave review of a recent show by Pugsley in Perth and check Pugsley’s website at http://www.pugsleybuzzard.com/ for sound files and more.  We’re proud that Bird & Beckett is his San Francisco home base…   He’s also at Pier 23 and Oakland’s Sound Room on this west coast swing before heading to New Orleans and back home.  Last we heard, he has plans to record a new album in the Big Easy while sojourning there.

ELLINGTON JAZZ  CLUB
25 January, 2013 

Built like a barrel, sporting a  jet-black goatee and moustache and a waistcoat with watch chain, Buzzard could  have stepped straight out of the Deep South. Indeed, he has spent time in New  Orleans and its surrounds, though he hails from Perth and now lives in Sydney.  In this instance, first impressions turn out to be on the money because the moment Buzzard growls good evening and plinks the piano keys, we are in honkey  tonk, gravelly jazz heaven.

Buzzard  is equal parts pianist and vocalist, and it is hard to know which to be more  awed by. Buzzard turned out jazz standards such as Dinah, which in boogie style  was hardly recognizable compared to Dean Martin’s mellifluous rendition, and  Fats Waller’sThe Viper’s Drag.  His own numbers however, and a  couple he picked in the US recently, were Buzzard at his dirty, bluesy, rag-time  best. Black Dog was a musical education in the underbelly of  depression; a talking blues number called Rag-time  Monkey elicited audience participation and was rollicking good fun;  and in Bad Attitude, Buzzard’s snarling, petulant vocals declared  he was in need of a double – one for him, and one for his bad  attitude.

Mention  must be made of Buzzard’s sensational supporting musicians; Phil Waldron and  Angus Diggs, on double bass and drums respectively. It appears they got the memo  on pre-requisite facial hair, as they also displayed rather impressive beards  and moustaches. Buzzard was generous in creating space for Waldron and Diggs to  get creative with solos, and they displayed the skill and intuitive ability of  those whose life’s work is playing music. Buzzard and band’s improvisational  abilities were also extremely impressive, and one had the distinct impression  that these three never play a song the same way twice. Which means that Friday  night at The Ellington was a one-night-only kind of  special.