Soul Family at Ronnie Scott's

Sunday night before a week of earlies is not generally a time that I would choose to go out. I’m glad I did. I’ve been meaning to go to Ronnie Scott’s for some time now so when my colleague Andrew suggested an outing to Soul Family I jumped at the chance.

Ronnie’s has been refurbished recently and is back to its former intimate opulence. Close seating and some standing area at the back is the order of the day but the compère Natalie Williams encouraged those standing to come and sit in the “Mosh Pit” at the front.

Normally I’m not the world’s biggest fan of Soul music – I don’t find it bad, just not something that, given the choice, I would listen to. But… Wow! This was great! Soul Family is live music as it should be: fun, lively and inclusive. There was a lot of improvisation going on all the time with The Ronnie Scott’s All Stars picking up music that they hadn’t heard before in a couple of bars.

As well as Natalie singing (and what a voice she has!) songs from her recent album there were numerous guests on stage all with their own unique styles. The performers were having a ball and thoroughly enjoying themselves, this proved to be infectious: even when the odd mistake happened everyone laughed with them.

It was with some regret that I left at 10 but I will go back. Be warned, though, the tickets sell out quickly!

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