CHELTENHAM JAZZ FESTIVAL 2022
Friday 29 April - CORINNE BAILEY RAE
Photo copyright John Watson/jazzcamera.co.uk
One of the most human-facing of pop stars, singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae’s Friday night show at Cheltenham Jazz festival brought intimacy at scale with an intimate band. Since her 2006 mega-selling crossover debut album she has reached across musical genres but generally tends toward smooth soul/R&B, wide-eyed soul with a classic flavour. She is no stranger to jazz festivals, works with jazz musicians and has impressive credentials as far back as 2008 when she was a featured artist on Herbie Hancock's Grammy-winning album River: The Joni Letters.
Connection and communication are big watchwords for the singer-songwriter. She’s an experienced performer who made an effort to bring in all sections of the audience in the cavernous big top tent that Cheltenham reserves for its biggest names. “I wanna get close, I wanna make sure I see everyone!” An old-fashioned power cut ended up magnifying the buzz, with Mikey Wilson soloing on the drum kit and guitarist John Walker bopping about. Other light moments included enacting a “real life fade out” with the crowd, and self-amusement about the failings of her own question “Are you feeling mellow or are you feeling deep and cosmic?”
Her cover of Bob Marley’s "Is This Love" bagged her a Grammy in 2012 for Best R&B Performance, smoothing out the reggae feel in favour of a most effective soul ballad. It sounds big live and points to another quiddity about her style; as a child she thought she wasn’t a proper singer because she felt she couldn’t do what Mariah Carey does - encountering Billie Holiday’s style was a revelation; and yet that sounds strange now because her vocalisation is now so accomplished it is closer to Mariah than Billie. Her memorable and empowering pop anthem “Put Your Records On” still makes me smile and closed the set with her doing what she does best: bringing people together with pure feeling.
Her 90-minute set was slick, but at times it felt very smooth, especially when you think about her journey. While still in her teens she was in an indie group called Helen inspired by L7 and Veruca Salt, and surprised people by becoming the Corinne Bailey Rae we know after a string of bands. Her radical untutored stance not knowing the names of chords or even strings may have bought her some luck for a while. In the present day I wouldn’t have minded some of the raw grit and up-front guitar of her second album 2012’s The Sea. In 2008 her husband the saxophonist Jason Rae died, turning her life and art upside down. The album is an extraordinary response to absolute loss, and strikes a more vital chord than even her triple platinum debut. Real people find her real. Fans want to tell her their own stories in person. And she listens.
Sublime moments lay more in the more vulnerable ballads more than the smoother ones. The ambivalence of love is a strong suit for her, a theme which animated songs like “Hey, I Won’t Break Your Heart” and “Trouble Sleeping” with lyrics intimating “some kind of therapy is all I need” and the refrain “Don’t say I’m falling in love”. Her comment “this is for anyone who has ever fallen in love with their best friend” gave me a double-take: the cornerstone of her live band is her second husband Steve Brown on keyboards. There were moments when the quality of the playing and the intimacy and cohesiveness of the band acted as an empowering motor for transmitting the strong emotional quality of her unstated performance and carefully conceived lyrical insights. The chemistry is great, but the band feel can tend to draw attention away from that remarkable central presence.
Reviewed by AJ Dehany
PHOTO CREDIT: Photo copyright John Watson/jazzcamera.co.uk
AJ Dehany writes about music, art and stuff at ajdehany.co.uk
Connection and communication are big watchwords for the singer-songwriter. She’s an experienced performer who made an effort to bring in all sections of the audience in the cavernous big top tent that Cheltenham reserves for its biggest names. “I wanna get close, I wanna make sure I see everyone!” An old-fashioned power cut ended up magnifying the buzz, with Mikey Wilson soloing on the drum kit and guitarist John Walker bopping about. Other light moments included enacting a “real life fade out” with the crowd, and self-amusement about the failings of her own question “Are you feeling mellow or are you feeling deep and cosmic?”
Her cover of Bob Marley’s "Is This Love" bagged her a Grammy in 2012 for Best R&B Performance, smoothing out the reggae feel in favour of a most effective soul ballad. It sounds big live and points to another quiddity about her style; as a child she thought she wasn’t a proper singer because she felt she couldn’t do what Mariah Carey does - encountering Billie Holiday’s style was a revelation; and yet that sounds strange now because her vocalisation is now so accomplished it is closer to Mariah than Billie. Her memorable and empowering pop anthem “Put Your Records On” still makes me smile and closed the set with her doing what she does best: bringing people together with pure feeling.
Her 90-minute set was slick, but at times it felt very smooth, especially when you think about her journey. While still in her teens she was in an indie group called Helen inspired by L7 and Veruca Salt, and surprised people by becoming the Corinne Bailey Rae we know after a string of bands. Her radical untutored stance not knowing the names of chords or even strings may have bought her some luck for a while. In the present day I wouldn’t have minded some of the raw grit and up-front guitar of her second album 2012’s The Sea. In 2008 her husband the saxophonist Jason Rae died, turning her life and art upside down. The album is an extraordinary response to absolute loss, and strikes a more vital chord than even her triple platinum debut. Real people find her real. Fans want to tell her their own stories in person. And she listens.
Sublime moments lay more in the more vulnerable ballads more than the smoother ones. The ambivalence of love is a strong suit for her, a theme which animated songs like “Hey, I Won’t Break Your Heart” and “Trouble Sleeping” with lyrics intimating “some kind of therapy is all I need” and the refrain “Don’t say I’m falling in love”. Her comment “this is for anyone who has ever fallen in love with their best friend” gave me a double-take: the cornerstone of her live band is her second husband Steve Brown on keyboards. There were moments when the quality of the playing and the intimacy and cohesiveness of the band acted as an empowering motor for transmitting the strong emotional quality of her unstated performance and carefully conceived lyrical insights. The chemistry is great, but the band feel can tend to draw attention away from that remarkable central presence.
Reviewed by AJ Dehany
PHOTO CREDIT: Photo copyright John Watson/jazzcamera.co.uk
AJ Dehany writes about music, art and stuff at ajdehany.co.uk
