Lianne Carroll & Friends
Influence Church, Richmond

A LENGTHY version of Billie Holiday’s Fine and Mellow got this jazz concert off to a fine start with Carroll’s opening vocal, short breaks all round and some enjoyable scatting.

The Friends, specially assembled for this occasion, were Gwilym Simcock on piano and electric organ, festival director Malcolm Creese on double bass and drummer Dave Ohm.

With only a brief rundown beforehand, the group played very cohesively, egged on by Carroll’s contagious enthusiasm in a fine example of jazz at its most spontaneous.

Number after number produced little gems of performance, such as Simcock’s gentle piano introduction on The Nearness of You, which led into a wordless vocal and a thoughtful bass solo, then a soulful crescendo which finally subsided into a lullaby.

There was some tremendous interplay between voice and piano on But Not For Me, and Willow Weep for Me opened with a vigorous bass solo which even Charles Mingus would have been proud of.

The pace varied throughout with songs such as a lively version of My Favourite Things, Mad About the Boy featuring just Carroll and Simcock, God Bless the Child showcasing Ohm on wire brushes and a couple with Carroll herself on piano.

She also invited alto saxophonist Alexander Bone, BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year, to join in on a lively jam on Bye Bye Blackbird before a final encore of Georgia on My Mind completed an exceptional evening.

Peter Bevan

Tenebrae Consort
St Andrew’s Church, Grinton

IN ANOTHER stunning performance, the Tenebrae Consort presented a programme of English Glories of the Sixteenth Century.

The eight singers – two each of sopranos, altos, tenors and basses – sang sacred music by Robert White, William Byrd, Thomas Tallis and William Mundy, all broadly contemporaries.

They began with Robert White’s third version of Christe qui lux es (Christ, who art the light and day) with a tenor at the rear of the church and the rest of the choir in the vestry before coming together on the stage.

It was sung in Latin, but with the programme for this piece giving only the English text (and elsewhere excluding the alternating plainsong Propers). I was unable to follow the words but was more than content to simply enjoy the superb singing.

This smaller ensemble exposes the individual voices, or rather gives them greater opportunities, and it was apparent that there were no weak links with each voice both beautiful in its own right and in harmony with the others.

Short’s unfussy direction ensured that the ensemble parts in particular were sung in perfect balance and timing and the smaller group enabled one to hear more clearly the individual parts or groupings forming the whole piece.

There isn’t space to comment on the works individually but besides two versions of White’s hymn they included Byrd’s Mass for four voices, four short pieces by Tallis and Mundy’s exquisite Vox Patris caelestis.

Peter Bevan

James Gilchrist
St Mary’s Church, Richmond

SWALEDALE Festival’s Richmond day concluded with renowned tenor James Gilchrist, accompanied by a small contingent from the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Entitled Songs of England, its principal attractions were two song cycles by Warlock and Vaughan Williams.

Introducing Warlock’s The Curlew, his setting of poems by W B Yeats, Gilchrist spoke particularly of its spirit of loneliness.

Accompanied by string quartet, cor anglais which represented the curlew and flute representing a peewit, this seemed the right combination, setting the mood with a lengthy instrumental introduction.

Gilchrist held the audience’s attention from beginning to end with the dark mood sustained throughout the four poems.

Then clarinettist Tim Orpen and pianist Anna Tilbrook performed Ireland’s Fantasy Sonata which drew one in very slowly, gradually becoming more beautiful and ending with a flourish.

Finzi’s Interlude for oboe and string quartet featured Steven Hudson in an enjoyable work which included some attractive interplay between oboe and first violin (Kyra Humphreys) in particular.

Gilchrist returned to sing On Wenlock Edge, Vaughan Williams’ setting of six poems from A.E. Houseman’s A Shropshire Lad. This was performed in the original sparer version for tenor, string quartet and piano, which seemed to me to help in creating some of the tensions and atmosphere expressed in the words.

In a sensitive and moving performance, Gilchrist caught the different moods perfectly, expressing relief, anguish, poignancy and despair, and once again completely holding his audience.

Peter Bevan

Kurt Elling Swings Sinatra
Sage, Gateshead

THERE may be many tributes to Frank Sinatra in his centenary year but I can’t imagine any more successful than this.

As one of the finest jazz singers in the world with a particularly distinctive voice, Kurt Elling did not seem the obvious choice to me, but I was proved wrong.

Quoted as admiring Sinatra’s swing and natural phrasing, he also showed he had the same voice and breath control and was able both to evoke Sinatra and remain his own man.

The concert was part of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra’s 20th anniversary celebrations and under the continued leadership of Tommy Smith they again demonstrated their versatility in a mix of classic charts and new arrangements.

In a jam-packed programme, Elling sang more than 20 of Sinatra’s most famous songs, including Day In, Day Out, Witchcraft, The Good Life and My Kind of Town with song after song beautifully sung and performed.

Like Sinatra, Elling sang each one as if it meant something to him and he also demonstrated some of that same self-confidence and swagger.

It was only when he sang a new arrangement of All The Way that it became obvious how the originals done specifically for Sinatra had shaped Elling’s performances so far, made more emphatic when he sang a new arrangement of I Only Have Eyes For You having opened the concert with the original version.

I think this should have satisfied both Elling and Sinatra fans, not forgetting the SNJO; it certainly delighted me.

Peter Bevan