REVIEW
Spirea X, The Lost Soul Band, Carol Kidd and Tam White, Glasgow Hogmanay party,-Gargleblud,
MIC
Le Jazz Hot and Barbara Hendricks.
LISTINGS: ROCK & BLUES 35 JAZZ 38 LIGHT 38 FOLK & WORLD 35 CLASSICAL 45
V JAZZ
In with the new
Kenny Mathieson looks back on a decisive year for jazz singer Carol Kidd and her new Trio as she prepares to share a stage with bluesman Tam White for the first
time.
The combination of two of Scotland‘s most popular singers, Carol Kidd and Tam White, should ensure a near capacity audience for their first ever joint concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. The Edinburgh bluesman will get a rare opportunity to show off his splendid eight-piece band, with Glaswegian expatriate Jim Mullen (who has his own Scottish tour coming up in January) standing in for Ian Bairnson on guitar.
If 1990 has been a year of slow but definite progress for Tam. it has been an even more remarkable one for Carol Kidd. For one thing, there was her splendid The Night We Called ltA Day album on Linn Records. her fourth for the label. and the cornerstone of a proposed expansion of their catalogue, which will shortly include David Newton‘s Victim ofCircums‘tance and a new Martin Taylor set with Carol‘s Trio.
The recruitment of her new Trio. with David Newton on piano. Dave Green on bass. and Alan Ganley on drums. has signalled another major change for her. Throughout the 19805. Carol worked with pianist Sandy Taylor, Alex Moore on bass and guitar. and drummer Murray Smith, but the new trio have lifted her music into a higher gear. Their sound and approach to
harmony is more modern, flexible. and exciting, while their ability to respond to any unexpected deviation by the singer has allowed Carol a new freedom to throw a few unexpected twists into
familiar songs.
‘I think they would probably agree with me and say that they have to fall in with what I do. I have a fixed idea of how I want to do a song, but that idea can vary a little from performance to performance. and the musicians will feel that, and go along with it. By the same token. David might play a phrase which I will latch on to, but initially I am the one who will establish the mood.
‘They have to listen to me because they are backing me. but by the same token I will be listening to them. It is a two-way thing on stage, and that is the way it has to be. I know it‘s selfish. but to a certain degree I like to please myself. I know I have to please my audience. but I have to please myself as well. because I have to get up there with a smile on my face.‘
Carol‘s ability to stamp her own personality on even the most familiar songs is one ofthc
qualities admired by pianist David Newton. He first worked with the singer in Edinburgh eight years ago, but was delighted to accept the offer of joining her new band. now that he is ‘slightly older and slightly wiser. which helps when you are accompanying a singer.‘
‘Carol is great at getting the song across.’ says David. ‘She really understands the song in the first place, and is able to communicate that understanding to the audience. She is such a natural singer, and I have always felt that the best singers are the natural ones. Carol likes to do songs her own way, and that can bring a whole new meaning to them.‘
Unfortunately, Newton will be the only member of the new Trio to make the Glasgow gig. when Carol will be using what she now refers to as her ‘Scottish trio‘, with Ronnie Rae on bass and son John on drums. She also intends to feature the Orchestra with which she played a couple of gigs earlier this year. My own feeling was that she lost some of the jazz feel of her work in that setting; then again, she is not all that fussed about being pegged as a jazz singer anyway.
‘I am quite happy to do more blues-type songs, or more commercial things. I would like to get into more songs like ‘I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today‘, which we did on The Night We Called It A Day. After that, though, it is all down to how you approach it and how you interpret it anyway — you can still give it a jazz feel.’
The current plan for the Glasgow concert. which is jointly promoted by Carol and the Glasgow International Jazz Festival (who may delve further into extra-Festival activities if this is a success). allows for an opening set from Tam White‘s band, followed by Carol with the Trio and Orchestra, and culminates in a mass get-together. doubtless around some blues belter like “Kansas City‘. It should see out the old year in considerable style.
Carol Kidd and Tam White play Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Thurs 27.
LIST
I GLASGOW'S some otherleartully OISCERNING MUSIC lovers essential emporium. intending to sample the Restructuring had begun. indie delights oi the Boo but due to some ‘oversight'. Radleys at their recent punters and promoters had Videodrome dale arrived at been lelt in the dark about the venue to discoveran the ensuing demolition intact tacade, but an derby. A genuine case of interior resembling the bringing down the house. proverbial bomb site. It I LET'S HAVE A Liberties seems that alter increasing story. courtesy oi the tinancial problems the club tireless Craig McLean. No. had been unobtrusively let's not. Stuart Nisbet bought overto be converted tailing asleep on the
into a bargain cabin or Glasgow-Edinburgh train
isn’t a story. Craig, even it he did wake up in Doncaster and call up his mates in China Crisis torsome turther bevvying. The tact that he didn't letanyone know where he was on his two-day disappearing act is slightly naughty. but not at all what we consider scandalous. Come bacltto us with some real dirt.
I THESE ALERT PEOPLE are Zoom. known up until now as Borsitee, one of Glasgow’s essential stops on the 'alternative' trail this year. From the iett. Mality. The Alien Pig. Gill. Popo and Icitmandhu. They have obligingly changed their
name to avoid any contusion with their old chums Clan Spamborsltee, and also to. ahem. ‘appease maiorlabel interest’. We'd like to intorm any at these ‘maior labels' that we've examined the picture and located what appearsto be a lilteron Mallty's cigarette. so that's all right. His sultry shag-me-I'm-a-cult-hero gaze might cause a bit oia drain on the grooming budget, though.
I DOES YOUR BAND have any embarrassing promo shots that until now may have languished in a drawer? Or perhaps a
member who somehow lets i receive a pic that can top it. the side down when the Entries to Listen! atthe shutter clicks? We have a ' usual address. And howler sent to us byA . remember. . . it can be in
MAJOR LABELlhatwe’ll coniidence.
print next issue it we don't 1
The List 21 December 1990— lllJanuary 199129