This was a thoroughly enjoyable gig, and an illustration of the development of a skilled woman singer, a great singer who is growing in confidence with every performance. The only drawback was that the sound wasn’t quite as good as it should have been during the first set, which must have been frustrating for the band. It has happened in previous weeks so perhaps it should be looked into.
Songs included were: a very sensitive At Long Last Love; the ballad (or bollard as Claire called it in her amusing chat) Mr Ugly; I Concentrate on You; I Cried for You, with an exceptional guitar solo where Mark seemed to be playing two tunes simultaneously. I especially liked the song choice of Rhode Island is Famous for You, a song which was new to me, which lists the products which are obtained from various states in the USA
The second set began with a funky, beaty Jody Grind, with great solos from all three instruments. Then Claire had the World on a String, with scat. Then came a surprise, a pop song from the Arctic Monkeys, When the Sun Goes Down, a song about a prostitute which Claire did well as a jazz song. This singer isn’t afraid to experiment with material and it’s working out well. She does upbeat stuff really well, as shown by Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My baby. Claire followed up by singing Aqua De Beber in Portuguese. By contrast came Pagan Love Song, with a very fast sort of walking bass, more like a bass doing the marathon. This song is normally a waltz – I said Claire was adventurous!
The set ended with an excellent blues, Unlucky Woman, a powerful performance with wonderful blues guitar from Mark. I’d love Claire to do a whole gig of blues, as she told me that she knows lots of blue songs.
Ann Alex
2 comments :
Sounds like a great gig. Wish I'd been there but I couldn't be in two places at once (I was at Blaydon Jazz Club's Xmas party featuring Frank Brooker). When is Claire's next gig?
Friday, December 9, 2011
Time7:00pm until 10:00pm
Description
Cuban Cigar Club's new Grainger Street store is opening its very own private members smoking club! It will be the only legal smoking lounge outside of London and will be operating a non-elitist policy for new members.
Claire Kelly and Mark Williams will be providing top class jazz entertainment from 7pm. They will also be alternating sets with the Andrew Kerensky Quartet.
This is a ticketed event so please contact Justin Clayton on 01914 474 270 or email him at info@cubancigarclub.co.uk for details.
An opportunity not to be missed.
(From Claire's Facebook page.)
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