Reviews

BATH CHRONICLE

A husband and wife team, plus band, are performing classic jazz at the University, to the delight of Charley Dunlap.

If anyone is wondering whether jazz singing will ever grow past the classic Tin Pan Alley songwriters, those that have given jazz about 90 per cent of its material, wonder no more.
At least that’s what fans of vocalist Sarah Moule will tel you. You might want to see for yourself tomorrow night at the University of Bath Arts Theatre.

The fuel that fires these fans, aside from Sarah’s own singing, is a repertoire of new songs by lyricst Fran Landesman, a New Yorker whose history goes back to the ‘50s with Miles Davis, Jack Kerouac and Lenny Bruce. I might add, Fran is author of ‘Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most’, by itself enough to get her into Songwriter Heaven.

Sarah Moule’s husband, pianist Simon Wallace writes the music for Fran’s songs, and over the last eight years they’ve become a classic team.

They’re not rubbishing stuff that’s gone before, Sarah explains, they’re carrying on a tradition, but with a contemporary look.

Not wanting to mislead us with the contemporary word, Sarah add: "Simon writes in a way that sits very well in the jazz idiom. He’s not trying to be avant-garde. He’s very melodic and the songs fit very naturally next to Duke Ellington and Mose Allison, whose songs I also do in the set."

The contemporary look comes largely from 75-year-old Landesman’s incisive, clever lyrics, which include tunes with titles like ‘Jazz Aliens’ and ‘When Your Computer Crashes’. This may seem an about-turn for the Queen of Sad, as she was once called, but these aren’t novelty tunes, rather traditional songs addressing modern life with a sophisticated lyric wit worthy of Cole Porter.

Sarah is the perfect interpreter of Landesman’s songs, their hipness conveyed by her sultry voice and a simplicity of style that lets the lyric come to the fore.

Sarah is accompanied by a fine band, including Mick Hutton on bass, Paul Robinson on drums and, of course, the very excellent Simon Wallace on piano.

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