Four of Australia’s finest rock performers:- Doug Parkinson, James Blundell, Nick Parker and Ezra Lee, have built a show around one of rock and roll’s greatest days, December 4, 1956. This was the day when four of the world’s greatest rock and rollers; Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and a very young piano player by the name of Jerry Lee Lewis happened to all turn up legendary producer Sam Phillips’s Sun Studios in Memphis on the same day and to celebrate the occasion they spent many hours jamming together. Phillips, aware of the momentousness of the occasion, recorded the jam sessions for posterity.
In between the quartet’s wonderful performances of some great rock n roll classics including such songs as ‘Little Red Rooster’, ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘Great Balls Of Fire’, ‘Don’t be Cruel’ and ‘See You Later Alligator’, each of the four performers had turns at grabbing the microphone an sharing some of the anecdotes that came out from that day as well as some of their own personal rock stories. The quartet was backed by an awesome band, the Sun Studio Trio band, comprising Steve Hadley, Dave Folley and Shannon Bourne.
The evening can best be described as a great evening of classic rock n roll music together with being educational about the early history of this great musical tradition, that is famously described as a, ‘mongrel dog, a mix of the blues and country music’.
There were many highlights. Here’s just a few…Doug Parkinson belting out ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. Parkinson sharing the anecdote of how as a 17 year kid, together with some mates, they all made up stories to their parents, and went to the Manly cinema and watched a double bill of Elvis Presley movies…Whiz kid Ezra Lee banging away at the keyboards with everything, including his sandshoes!
This was a great ‘Summer at the House’ show. Old rockers were jiving away in their seats.
‘The Ultimate Rock N Roll Jam Session’ opened at the Playhouse, Sydney Opera House, on Wednesday 16th February and rocks on till Sunday 27th February, 2011.