The display stands for
Burford Jazz promises “Top quality live jazz every month with an accent on
entertainment” so let’s see if that promise is met. Lily Dior, in turn, told us
that she would be singing all wonderful old standards with her twist on them,
and, in fairness, she did that.
She opens with My Foolish Heart, an easy grooving intro to the night’s entertainment, with rolling mallets and glowing guitar chords, with Montgomery-ish, spring-loaded, single notes soloing from Cook. Angel Eyes, as a Latin shuffle follows. It’s mainstream jazz but Dior puts herself into it; she has a flexible voice of some corners and angles. She seems to thrive on stage as if it’s her Friday, end-of-the-week release as much as it is the audience’s. There’s a strong hint of Cleo Laine, but with less scatting. Jeffries adds a bouncing bass solo.
Dior has definitely
warmed up by the start of East of the
Sun, West of the Moon’s joyful central scat section; she exchanges fours
with Rob Bryan’s drums, each playing off the other. Save Your Love for Me slows the pace; it’s another easy rolling
tune during which Cook pieces together another elegant, late night, smoky solo.
The first set closes with a very spare You
and the Night and the Music. Opening with just Lily and the guitarist; she
sings the melody and Cook decorates the spaces between. A sudden stop and then
the band cuts into a joyous section of be-boppery that takes us to drinks.
The second set brings a
lovely relaxed, swinging warm and romantic rendition of Our Love is Here to Stay and another Latin shuffle in I’ve Got You Under My Skin. They Can’t Take
That Away From Me features more of Lily’s scatting and more exchanges with
the drummer who shines on his solo during a soaring and swooping, bluesy Nature Boy, all rim shots and cymbal
splashes. The tempo drops again for What
a Difference a Day Makes and Lily again shows her full range, holding some lovely,
long notes to a pindrop silence from the audience. The A Train takes us home.
She’s not breaking any boundaries but she is an entertaining, personable singer, full of good cheer. Her voice carries the melody and her flexibility, singing from a low register to a soaring wail, captures the intent and the emotion of a song very well. The best you can say of any entertainer is that she guarantees a good night out and she and the quartet have done that. The band makes the very most of a limited musical palette which has the virtue of letting the strong soloing from all three musicians shine through.
At half time I catch a moment with Jayne and Paul Jeffries who between them are promoting tonight’s gig. They have been going about 10 years and Burford Jazz is only one of the six strings to their bow. Their Little Live Music Company also promotes gigs in Witney, Woodstock, Thame, Cirencester and Moreton on the Marsh with a move into Maidenhead coming up. Jayne says that they do different things in different places and it evolves over time. She believes that jazz should have an edge and that it comes alive in the corners. Tonight’s edge, she explains, is that the band don’t really know each other and are working things out live on stage. Paul does the music, she says (including being the bass man for tonight) and she does everything else (but don’t tell Paul she said that)!
2 comments :
Patronising review. Your final assessment of Miss Dior's performance is just thus side of 'mansplaining'. Poor, template journalism masquerading as patronage.
Thank you for your comment re the above post, safely sent from behind a blanket of anonymity. That's okay, you no doubt have your reasons for maintaining your privacy and, whilst I wholly disagree with you, I will, to misquote a well-known phrase, defend to the death (or thereabouts) your right to say it.
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