Chaka Khan retires (most of) her hits to give a rare performance of jazz album ClassiKhan
This year, the annual Meltdown festival at the Southbank Centre was curated by none other than the Queen of Funk, Chaka Khan. Following in the footsteps of previous curators like Nile Rodgers, Grace Jones, and Christine and the Queens, Khan enlisted a predominantly female lineup with acts running the gamut of jazz, funk, and soul.
While kicking off Meltdown with a ‘50 years in music’ concert majoring on her biggest, most well-known hits, Khan closed the festival with a performance of one of her more obscure albums, 2004’s ClassiKhan. Recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, the album gave Khan the opportunity to indulge in her deepest love of jazz, recording standards she grew up listening to (‘Stormy Weather’, ‘Teach Me Tonight’, ‘Is That All There Is?’), as well as Broadway showtunes (‘Hey Big Spender’) and classic film scores (‘Goldfinger’, ‘Diamonds are Forever’, ‘To Sir with Love’).
Backed by the Nu Civilisation Orchestra – led by Tomorrow’s Warriors alumnus Peter Edwards – the album was performed in full bar the (unfortunate) omissions of ‘Round Midnight’ and ‘Hazel’s Hips’. Khan’s narration of the night ebbed and flowed, at its best when sharing personal insights about the songs which inspired her, at its weakest when reciting details on songwriters and composers from a script at her feet.
Yet, the moments in between songs felt inconsequential given the lustre of her singing. Unlike her first Meltdown concert, Khan had no busy production and singalong choruses to hide behind. While the arrangements gave Khan ample opportunity to access the brassy upper-levels of her voice, the subtle melodic cadences and terrific lyricism of this catalogue brought out other vocal delights – warm lows on the opening verses of ‘Teach Me Tonight’, wry asides and coquettish throwaways in ‘Hey Big Spender’, and slick glissandos on Patsy Cline’s ‘Crazy’. ClassiKhan‘s only original track ‘I Believe’ was perhaps the evening’s high point, delivered with soaring heft from the Chaka Khan Meltdown choir, led by British soul virtuoso Tawiah.
The set ventured beyond ClassiKhan, too. ‘Roll Me Through the Rushes’, a track from Khan’s debut solo album Chaka (1978), was an off-centre but welcome addition to the set, its simmering spirituality cutting through the pomp of the Royal Festival Hall. The orchestra was put to fine use on power ballad ‘Through the Fire’ in a display of full-blown maximalism: musicians fully mobilised, the choir giving it their all, backing singers vamping, and Khan singing to the rafters. An encore of ‘Ain’t Nobody’ and ‘I’m Every Woman’ (for which Khan brought out some of her fellow Meltdown co-headliners, including Mica Paris, Judi Jackson, and Lady Blackbird) was perhaps pandering, but damn entertaining nonetheless.
