At Belfast’s newest jazz club, black-clad, flame-haired Christine Tobin, unusually for her, presented a programme of songs from the Great American Songbook.
Technically her accompanists, Hammond organist Myles Drennan, whom she said she had never met before, and drummer David Lyttle, who runs the club, were a pick-up band but, given how exemplary their accompaniment was, the term seems absurdly inappropriate.
Tobin, now resident in Ireland again after several years in New York (and decades in England), is a sublime communicator of a lyric whose technical skills and sincerity were such that even on the most familiar songs one often felt like one was experiencing the lyrics afresh. ‘Embraceable You’ was sung with a sexual longing that was almost palpable and had some of the chaps in the audience mopping their brows, while on ‘Old Devil Moon’ she communicated irresistibly the headlong joy of being in love.
On every song, indeed, she conveyed the appropriate emotion with great precision, and on ‘I Didn’t Know What Time It Was’, ‘Come Rain Or Come Shine’ and several other songs her scatting was dazzling. But maybe best of all was Jobim’s bossa nova ‘Corcovado (Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars)’ the poetic lyrics of which were sung with compelling sensitivity, the delighted audience hanging on every word.
Drennan, a longtime collaborator of Ireland’s greatest ever jazz musician, the late guitar great Louis Stewart, contributed artful, eloquent solos to every song while Lyttle’s occasional solos were unfailingly creative and imaginative.
* The Dock Street Jazz Club is an important addition to the Belfast jazz scene. Recent performers have included Will Vinson and Phil Robson. Upcoming artists include Ashley Henry, Jean Toussaint, Jim Mullen and Vincent Herring.
