Jessie Gordon is Out of the Loop | The Ellington | Until 1 Feb | ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
I sat nervous and curious for the uncertainty of an improvised looping show. How does one’s brain cope so freely and undaunted under what could be such naked pressure?
The stage is bare with all but a stool, a microphone setup, and warm fairy lights above; the design to a night of raw creation. Jessie streams in sparkling and vivacious. She converses casually with the audience just as though we are all one large and familiar family.
What is to come will be unrehearsed and unique. Performing all over the world, all year long, she lives and breathes the stage authentically. This cosy jazz club could be the most momentous place to be.
In collaboration, we’re invited to heckle out; requesting songs, words, and feelings of what we want to create. She’s on the spot enthusiastically and simply glides through with joy, like a kid inside their favourite toy box. Pulling out some familiar and unfamiliar riffs, you can’t help but groove as they sink grippingly into your body. Climbing catchy hooks and stacking harmonies, your ears melt to sugar and butter. With humorous glances and sometimes bashingly simple rhymes, you feel glee just to be human.
Inhibiting hearts and sailing out into a sea of jazz, there is a mermaid inside our brains. I can’t exactly flaw it… Only that I wish we called out more suggestions and that it went for longer. I’d love to see some daring beings from the audience give a bass line or rhyme a red hot crack. This vibe is wholesome on the journey of the breathtaking, masterful and sheer genius, Jessie Gordon.
Sometimes you’re watching something and you start writing shopping lists in your head thinking about tomorrow – this wouldn’t normally be my cup of tea and yet it was never that kind of show.
This show will be new every time. You’ll be inspired and wide eyed, dreaming of rhythms and romanticising silly lyrics for the next few chunks of life to come. Performers like this really give you something.
See Jessie Gordon is Out of the Loop until Saturday 1st February.
Talia Hart is a musician and actor from The Actor’s Hub collective. She is most passionate about humanity’s ability to inspire change through the art of storytelling and movement.
