Gabrielle
Heller (vocals, electronics, percussion); Steve Glendinning (guitar)
(Review
by Ann Alex/photo by Mike Tilley).
There was a full house
for this unusual gig from Gabi and Steve, including people from Germany and Brazil
We had Gabi’s song Wallflower; then a song about early life
before cities, with made-up language which sounded like ‘skee ya dum day’, very
imaginative; Sting’s Hole In My Life
with a scat refrain; a softer-voiced Angel
Eyes with an exquisite guitar solo; Holiday’s Tell Me More And More And Then Some in an upbeat version; songs
dedicated to the boat people, with an African style introduction, Kurt Weill’s My Ship, merged with a Latin bossa
novarish song Little Boat, and to
round off the first set, a blues, Sail On.
The second set opened
with a song by Queen Dead On Time,
with another good guitar solo to suit travelling in a city; then Gabi read
excerpts from a poem Electricity (I’m
not sure if this works at a jazz gig); a lovely version of the mythical Nature Boy followed; then came I Will Say Goodbye; True Love, written
by Gabi and her husband; Tom Waits’ song about putting on a performance, with
interesting use of a walkie talkie microphone. Kurt Weill’s Speak Low was the last song I heard
properly as the Metro called me home, so I left to the sounds of Billie
Holiday’s Don’t Explain.
I enjoyed this gig
immensely, but I wonder if the sound levels needed some adjustment as Gabi’s
voice was very loud on some songs, giving a very in-your-face effect. Just a thought and I don’t know if other
people noticed this.
Ann Alex
1 comment :
The "Chock Chock" was either claves or castanets or a combination of both!
And yes, particularly down front the sound level did seem high.
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