review the basement 15 march 1999

The Basement crowd was quite sizeable for a Monday and adamant that there was only one reason for them to be there. That reason was well and truly acknowledged when this nouveau-jazz diva emerged.

Resplendent in an embossed-white evening gown, Rebecca Rennie was 'as nervous as' right the way up to the opening of tonight's show. All nerves were dispelled, though, when the audience fairly errupted to a level normally reserved for well-known well-established acts as she took the stage! While the audience were just as many family and friends as supporters, they had all shelled out their hard-earned to see Freyja's Basement debut and were as enraptured as a polite jazz-crowd is allowed to be at the sight and sound of this jazz/latin set penned by players and colleagues both onstage and in the cheering audience.

Stand out tunes of the first set included the opener The Castle, Titania's Charm, Without a Trace and the non-acoustic version of the EP closer Cocoon. I was only able to stay for that set, which is more the pity because that simply was not enough to quench my wont of more of this emergingly popular artist! Lovers of jazz from traditional Halliday to the new West Coast style will find Freyja with Rebecca Rennie just what they have been lacking locally for far too long! PG (Jacky) Gleeson