It was to be a chilly night and heading off to Geisha was to be a tough ask. But having missed last Saturday’s performance of Nicky Dufell, an acclaimed saxaphonist,  there was no chance on missing out on her second and last performance.

Playing in the industry for 15 years, Nicky is a Perth expat residing in Singapore and regularly plays at the Somerset Jazz Bar, Singapore’s biggest jazz club. Having recently visited Singapore and the Somerset, this reviewer can vouch for how swanky and New Yorkish it is with its long, sleek bar and dimly lit areas that provides its young and funky patrons with an opportunity to unwind. The same could be said for the crowd upon arrival to Geisha; who were moving to the house tunes that Geisha can always be relied for.

Having played at an earlier time slot on the previous Saturday, it was 2am and the prime slot this time round was allocated to Miss Dufell. The packed crowd were grooving to the bass-filled house set provided by James A to accompany Nicky. It was an electric atmosphere and blasting through it all was the funky acid jazz tune that Nicky is known for. When she hit the low notes, it reminded you of movies set in New York with the sax moaning in the background as the scene overlooks the sky-line at night. Then she would hit the highs and the Geisha contemporary showed their appreciation to her solid acappella with applause and dancing wildly. It was also then that we knew we lost someone special to another part of the world.

But playing with an improvised sound system, it didn’t do justice to the renowned saxophonist. It was like decoding music (especially jazz) off a CD and then encoding it to 128kbit. It still sounds good, but you can always tell that something’s missing.

There’s a place to fit almost every musical taste in Perth on a regular basis. But one remains elusive and that is quality jazz and its cousin, acid jazz. I’m sure there are exceptions (Universal Bar?), but not enough to huddle up the masses. It’s a bit like us having great restaurants that serve fantastic food from all over the world, but none that does good Mexican food. And you settle for what you can get. But what we got on Saturday was a brilliant saxophonist playing acid jazz. And those who weren’t in attendance missed out on a great performance.