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It was an evening of surprising firsts at the Ottawa International Jazz Festival Friday night.
First of all, there was a show, albeit a very soggy one. Then, the evening's opener Juno and National Jazz Award winning singer Laila Biali missed her gig after getting stuck in a plane on the tarmac at Ottawa International Airport when officials decided the ferocious storm south of the city made deplaning too dangerous.
Nevertheless, the two-thirds of Biali's trio that made it to Confederation Park — George Koller on bass and Brian Lewis on drums — carried on without her with a thoroughly enjoyable, if self-consciously abbreviated set for about 100.
But the biggest surprise of the night was Elvis Costello.
Lately, the 57-year-old Costello — Canadian jazz siren Diana Krall's husband — has been touring with his "Spectacular Spinning Songbook" show with his current band The Imposters. One half game show, one half concert, listeners spin the wheel to decide Costello's next song. It's an inspired bit of staged lunacy that only a cheeky Costello could pull off. But for whatever reason, Costello decided to forego the Wheel of Fortune charade and all those free trips to Hawaii, and play it straight.
Unencumbered, Costello tore the Concerts Under the Stars stage to shreds with a rip-roaring set of favourite hits. Some of them, like "Almost Blue" sounded almost jazzy. Imagine that!
Elder wit?
Throughout the misty night, the question many of the 2,500 fans were collectively wondering was, which Elvis Costello will we get? The young punk, the elder wit, the lounge singer? Which?
What we got was a free-flowing survey of Costello's remarkable career beginning with "Pump It Up," "Heart of the City," "Everyday I Write the Book," "Strict Time" before cruising through some of his lesser-known titles. With 33 albums including his latest The Future Lies Ahead to choose from, nobody really knew what to expect next from a delightfully playful Costello.
"I'm the intermission act," he joked at one point before playing "A Slow Drag with Josephine" and "Jimmy Standing in the Rain" by himself before he was rejoined by the Imposters for "Chelsea," "Watching the Detectives" and a lovely croon on "Alison" before an encore of "The Angels Want to Wear My Red Shoes."
Performance-wise, Costello, wearing a pork pie hat offset by his black glasses, sang off-key and slightly behind the beat for most of the show and it was entirely excellent to see Costello so alive and out-of control and still capable of feeling the music after all these years.
That's the Elvis Costello we got: Unpredictable, vintage Costello.
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