STAGE REVIEW: Robin Nolan Trio at The Huntingdon Hall, Worcester.

THE big breaks don’t come any better than this. Former Beatle George Harrison’s gardener spots three unknowns busking in Amsterdam, likes what they’re doing, and buys one of their CDs.

A month later, the great man – the phone number of one of the buskers is on the record sleeve – calls to ask if they can do a birthday gig at the rock god’s stately pile.

And the rest, as they say, is history…

What sets Robin Nolan apart from the many musicians who play Django Reinhardt style is that he doesn’t just confine his repertoire to gipsy jazz.

He neither shrinks from doing a fabulously improvised interpretation of Soft Cell’s Tainted Love, nor is he fazed about collaborating with a drunken Texas country picker by the name of Jimmy Pickles to come up with a stonking hunk of hokum titled Wild Rice Blues.

There is indeed a lot more, in particular his salute to Harrison’s Indian mentor Ravi Shankar, the man who replaced rockabilly king Carl Perkins in his musical affections.

Ravi starts in raga mode, then seamlessly segues into And I Love Her, soon to be followed by the greatest love song of the last century, Something in the Way She Moves.

Thanks to Nolan’s eclectic approach, old favourites such as Nuages and Minor Swing are given a spring clean. Even Fats Waller’s Honeysuckle Rose seems brand new when it’s given the Nolan trio treatment, the musicians fearlessly departing from the tune at times, only to return in melodic triumph.

This was indeed a stunning display and may these talented players soon make a return visit to Worcester’s great music hall.

John Phillpott