The strongest Jazz Voice in years

The EFG London Jazz Festival began 30 years ago. And 15 years ago, the Jazz Voice gala was introduced. The brainchild of composer Guy Barker, the gala was initially planned as a one-off concert, yet it has continued to inaugurate each festival since. Those familiar with the gala will know that – despite its title – the music performed tends to span the gamut of jazz, soul, blues, and pop. The beaming Jumoké Fashola resumed her hosting duties for what turned out to be a remarkably consistent concert with no weak or underwhelming number in the mix. Each soloist took to the stage twice, backed by Barker and the London Jazz Festival Orchestra.

Welsh singer Ian Shaw and the Grammy-winning Kurt Elling gave arguably the most squarely ‘jazz’ performances of the evening. Shaw kicked off the gala with the Fran Landesman and Bob Dorough composition ‘Small Day Tomorrow’, scatting confidently over the big band arrangement. Elling delivered ‘The Joker is Wild’, from the musical The Big Blind he co-wrote with Barker, and later his original song ‘Endless Lawns’, singing with phenomenal timbre and range.

Veering into more bluesy territory were Dana Masters and Amythyst Kiah (pictured). Masters, who hails from the American Deep South but now resides in Northern Ireland, paid homage to her mentor Van Morrison with his tune ‘Satisfied’. The number was a victory for both Masters’ richly-voiced, sultry delivery, and the orchestra’s heavenly brass. Kiah, hitherto unknown to this writer, was the revelation of the evening. She rushed to the stage with a rip-roaring and pitch-perfect performance of her Grammy-nominated ‘Black Myself’, an anthem of affirmation bolstered by gravitas of the orchestra.

Queen of Lovers Rock Carroll Thompson‘s poignant tune ‘September’, written about the passing of her father, was orchestrated as a lush slice of Philly soul. She also sang dulcetly of the Alberto Domínguez song ‘Perfidia’, recorded in the rocksteady tradition by Phyllis Dillon, bringing a welcome balance to the theatrics of the evening. Emergent soul singer Mica Miller, who released her debut album Heaven Knows earlier this year, brought heaps of longing and melancholy on torch ballad ‘Will I See You Again’. And in her own beautifully eccentric world was Shingai, lead-singer of indie-rockers The Noisettes, performing the title track of her debut album Too Bold (2020) – a message of survival in the face of racism and discrimination (‘Don’t let them tell you you’re too dark / How great thou art’). Backed by haunting strings, Shingai brought terrific physicality to the number. And likewise with her second-set performance of original song ‘Coming Home’, inspired by the folk music of her Zimbabwean Shona heritage.

Musical theatre star Marisha Wallace tackled jazz standard ‘My Man’, showing finesse in the opening verses before driving the song to a big, Barbra Streisand-inspired finish. And then she left the audience in ruins with her second-set performance of Dreamgirls showstopper ‘And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going’ – earning a thoroughly-deserved standing ovation.

Jazz Voice tends to falter by forcing its line-up to sing together for an encore performance. This year’s encore was a (somewhat arbitrarily chosen) rendition of Aretha Franklin’s ‘Think’. Bar a missed cue early in the performance, the number closed the evening with aplomb. The strongest Jazz Voice in years.

You can watch the entire concert on BBC iPlayer HERE!

Check out other London Jazz Festival shows HERE!

All photography credit of Emile Holba