It may have escaped your attention, but let it be known now and forever more that Hugh Laurie is not African-American.
It was a fact that the “House” star implicitly acknowledged last night throughout his set at Town Hall. Backed by his seven-piece group the Copper Bottom Band, Laurie is taking a break from acting to indulge in his love of American blues and jazz.
“You’re watching someone doing something he’s not qualified to do,” deadpanned the Englishman by way of introduction. The self-effacing is oh so very English, but it’s not entirely true.
Laurie is a multi-instrumentalist with skills that few in the United States have seen. It was a talent he used frequently during his early British comedy roles, particularly in the early ’90s BBC sketch show “A Bit Of Fry And Laurie” (YouTube his swipe at Bruce Springsteen for just one hilarious example).
So while his Grandpa is unlikely to have been through the wilds of Dixieland and he definitely wasn’t raised in a juke joint, Laurie’s light-fingered flair for the piano was evident throughout. His voice, however, is not up to such standards, lacking the necessary feel or soul to convincingly pull off the standards on either of his two albums (the last of which, “Didn’t It Rain,” came out in the summer).
As a result, Laurie left it to his band members to pick up the slack. Vocalists Sister Jean McClain and Gaby Moreno were regularly pushed to the front and it made for the night’s best moments, such as the version of Ray Charles’ “What Kind Of Man Are You” and a sensational version of Bessie Smith’s “Send Me To The ’lectric Chair.”
“And now you’re probably wondering what kind of idiot would try to sing after that,” Laurie said immediately before trying his hand at Elvis Presley’s “Mystery Train.”
It wasn’t just false modesty. Compared to what had just happened, his singing was competent karaoke at best.
But Laurie was far from redundant and acted instead as more of a master of ceremonies, bantering wittily for long periods about all sorts of subjects from his life in Los Angeles to the problems of buying things online.
At one point during “Kiss Of Fire,” he and Moreno even treated the crowd to a rudimentary tango. It would have been a lot more convincing were it not for the fact that he was wearing patterned pants that made him look less like a hotblooded Latin lover, and more like an eccentric golfer.
Although music is his hobby, Laurie worked impressively hard over the course of 2 ¹/₂ hours to make sure his audience didn’t walk away thinking this was merely amateur night. And he just about pulled it off.
If you’re one of those insufferable bores that seeks authenticity in everything, don’t bother with a show like this. But if you prefer having fun to being snooty, then Hugh Laurie and the Copper Bottom Band provide the kind of entertainment to cover most desires.