The Jassman BRIAN HOUGH recently published this review of the award winning SHANGHAI BRUNCH album by the Charl du Plessis Trio:

I wrote some months ago about Charl du Plessis and how he reminded me of Jacques Loussier.  His Shanghai Brunchalbum I listened to recently is an absolute winner.  There are 18 tracks on the CD with music from famous composers such as Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Debussy and many others including the great du Plessis himself.

Listening to the album becomes a ‘groot kopkrap’ if, like me; your memory of classical compositions has become clouded over the years.  His renditions, here gentle and there swinging, will have you thinking, ‘I know this piece, but what is it and who composed it?’

Even Debussy’s Clair de Lune had me fooled as did the same composer’s Golliwog’s Cake Walk (no offence intended).  Du Plessis’s artistry on the piano is breathtaking and he is ably aided and abetted (in a nice way) by Werner Spies on double and electric bass and Hugo Radyn on drums.  As du Plessis says of Radyn, ‘I like his drumming because he can drum softly as well as loudly.’

Some of the titles are real jawbreakers for the uninitiated:   Andante from Piano Concerto no. 21; Marcia Funèbre from Piano Sonata no. 2; Pavan pour une infant Dèfunte, etc.  But don’t let that put you off; this is a swinging album as only the Charl du Plessis Trio can produce.

This disc is available from iTunes or Kalahari.