Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Liane Carroll - Standard Issue

A little while ago I went with some friends to the 606 Club in Chelsea to see fantastic jazz singer and pianist, Liane Carroll. Strangely enough, we bumped into Bill Oddie on the way in (that's him on the left). Ms Carroll was playing with Greg Leppard on drums, and her husband, Roger Carey, on bass. The highlight of the gig was when vocalist Ian Shaw (who she introduced as 'my luvrrrr') came up and they did a storming rendition of Carole King's You've Got a Friend. Disappointingly, they didn't do The Funky Gibbon, despite the fact that Mr Oddie was there to show us how (ooh ooh ooh).

Liane's music can definitely be enjoyed by everybody - it's not just for jazz-heads. The set included jazz classics such as That Old Black Magic, done in a very contemporary style, and songs from the pop repertoire, such as Eleanor Rigby, done, naturally, with a dash of jazz. There were also several great songs written by Ms Carroll.

It was such an absorbing gig that I completely missed the last tube home. (Mind you, the way the club was set up, you would have had to squeeze past Ms Carroll to get to the exit, so it wouldn't really have been the done thing to leave before the end.) Lucky for me my friends had a spare sofa.

This was also the CD Launch Party of her new album, Standard Issue. She kindly signed my copy ('To Angis'. Oh well.)