The Leonard Charles Trio featuring Sandy Mill Ponsonby Social Club June 1, 2023

Leonard Charles Trio is Jeremy Toy (ace producer/musician) and his band, Trio, who got June underway in style with help from the vocal stylings of Sandy Mill.

Ponsonby Social Club felt particularly cosy on this Thursday evening with friends, family and fans gather to catch Jeremy and Sandy and their funky, jazzy grooves.

The trio started the evening with a tune titled Capetown Fringe, first recorded back in 1977 by Dollar Brand and a tune that is quite important to Jeremy as he preceded the performance with a personal story about his infant son and a South African nurse who helped get him home from hospital.

Its 9 minutes of chilled jazz with bassist Chip Matthews and drummer Adam Tobeck laying down a smooth groove. We get three tasty numbers in all before Sandy sings including a very funky Ain’t It Funky, a James Brown tune performed in the style of Grant Green.

Then Sandy came on board to much supportive hollers from a crowd the included Dan Sperber, Steph from LIPS and a Sami Sister.

Sandy opened her part of the show with her latest release, High On Love and the crowd was with her from the start.

Socials, another original tune about “doom scrolling”, followed and then Sandy’s husband arrived to  solidify that family vibe.

Sandy seemed to channel Minnie Ripperton as she covered Solange’s Cranes In The Sky. It was a highlight in a night full of them with even the bartender shaking his cocktail in time to the music.

Sandy dipped into her “back catalogue’ to sing a couple of tunes from her 2018 album, A Piece Of Me, closing with a slow, slinky Charade.

But the night was young and neither the audience or the musicians wanted it to end and so we got a couple more lovely tunes from the trio wrapping with another Grant Green number, Walk In The Night.

And walk in the night we did, it was surprisingly balmy on this  winter eve. Maybe the music had something to do with it.

Marty Duda

Click any icon to view a gallery of photos from the show.