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PUGSLEY BUZZARD TRIO at the Sound Room

Pugsley Buzzard is a consummate artist performing hundreds of shows every year. From the jazz cellars of Berlin to downtown New Orleans, Pugsley has dazzled audiences far and wide with his unique brand of piano driven boogie and blazing stride in conjunction with his huge mezmerizing voice that makes the ladies sigh and grown men cry.

At first glance, Buzzard looks like a bluesy jazz man. 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.