The Edinburgh International Jazz Festival of 1982 was spread across the
Scottish capital in a multitudinous cross-section of bars and hotels - all
serving ales of the sponsoring brewery, Dryboroughs.
It was a vintage year. Among the stars that season were Teddy Wilson, Humph, Dick Cary, Benny Waters and Jim Galloway as well as north east heroes the Savannah Syncopators. They all played brilliantly but, for me, the highlight was a wee Glaswegian singer that I'd never heard of - Carol Kidd.
I was in between concerts and had just wandered into the Roxburghe Hotel - or it may have been the George - for a pint or a sandwich or, more likely, both. I heard this voice coming from a smallish bar. The tune was Waltz For Debby. Prior to this, I'd never heard the Bill Evans classic sung but this was like the icing on the original cake! I'd never been so knocked out by a singer since I'd first heard Ella with Oscar over 25 years earlier.
Standing next to me at the bar was Fred Hunt. I said to him that I thought that Carol was great. Fred replied saying, "Like a lot of musicians I don't have much time for singers but, that was something else!" Something else it certainly was. Over the ensuing years, Carol released albums, opened for Frank Sinatra, picked up an MBE and many other awards yet, since hearing her at Lockerbie in 2010, where the voice was as wonderful as ever, sadly, she seems to have dropped off the jazz radar - Lance
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