This, I think, was the fourth time that I've heard Madeleine at the soon to be renamed Sage Gateshead and, upon reflection, the best of the lot!
Promoted as the Careless Love Forever World Tour - named after her iconic 2004 album now reissued in a deluxe package - from the get go it reminded me how wonderful that album was and that the singer had lost none of her original qualities 18 years later.
The voice can be as clear as crystal or as earthy as a downtown Mississippi blues mama and it held the audience spellbound until the rapturous applause that, at the end, encouraged not one but two encores. A swinging I Hear Music and a soulful This is Heaven to me which indeed it was.
Accompanying her were three of New York's finest and all three got the audience's hands colliding after their solos which doesn't always happen at Sage gigs that aren't attended by an out and out jazz audience.
This was something special.
Songs included: When You; Don't Cry Baby; Don't Wait Too Long; There'll be Some Changes Made; Lonesome Road; Dance me to the End of Love; You're Gonna Make me Lonesome; Dance me to the End of Love; Agua de Beber; J'ais Deux Amours; God Bless the Child; Careless Love; I Hear Music; This is Heaven to me.
Maxine has a strident voice that didn't always find compatibility with the Sage One acoustics but still got through to the audience and, unlike the typical support act scenario, no one headed for the bar.
On guitar, Lewis played some lovely accompanying chords and it would have been nice for him to have been given more solo space. Still, there's only so much you can do in a 30 minute set.
Later, listening to Madeleine it occurred to me how nice it would have been if Maxine and Jack had had access to the American trio... However, all that apart, these two are worth keeping on your radar. Lance
Songs included: Summertime; Strange Love; Speak Low; Gone With the Wind.
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