First night in Buxton, and a double bill of Madeline Bell and Judi Jackson. Having interviewed Judi Jackson prior to the Festival (link below), I could already visualise what to expect: barefoot in the likeness of her idol Nina Simone, Judi Jackson took the audience on a journey through the great American Songbook, accompanied by a stunning band, in which Will Cleasby’s drumming really stood out. His contribution to the band was many-faceted: a superb sensitivity to the challenging acoustic, a rich palette of different sound colours and a stunning breadth of dynamic range.
But what I wasn’t expecting was quite how phenomenal the opening act would be. The 81-year-old Madeline Bell, with Ian Shaw at the piano, made the grand Buxton Opera house feel intimate and personal. Bell’s ability to engender a sense of community and togetherness in the stalls, to ‘shrink the room’, was astonishing. She remarked that she was more used to venues in which she could physically close the distance between herself and the audience – regardless, she moved the audience greatly, especially with a melancholic and reflective rendition of Lennon and McCartney’s “She’s Leaving Home”. Perhaps it should not be surprising that the performance craft of a singer who’s shared the stage with Dusty Springfield and Ray Charles should be so remarkable and memorable.
Day two, and an excursion to the Assembly Rooms to watch the Scottish-Italian JKL Duo (guitarist Jacopo Lazzaretti and flautist Kerry Lynch) perform a set of music from their album “The International Poet”. Their music merged cultural identities from around the world to breathe new life and interpretation to the poetry of Robert Burns. I wished that we could have had copies of the poems.
The evening brought yet more new music, this time in the form of string arrangements commissioned for the festival by Andy Stamatakis-Brown, fronted by singer Nishla Smith. Jazz with strings can be beautifully emotional, although there is an ever-present risk of pastiche. This was highly inventive string writing, including a section of trading fours in “Tea For Two” with the rhythm section – which, with the quartet sat opposite the band, came across as something of a musical boxing match won out by the strings. By far the most impactful tunes of the night were the arrangements of two back-to-back Judy Garland classics, “If I Only Had a Brain” and “Trolley Song”. Particularly enjoyable were the strings-as-revolving-wheels-of-train.
Saturday night and a different feel entirely – Mica Millar performed a set of original soul music, save for a rendition of Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready”. Millar’s stripped-back set was missing some dynamic and textural range necessary to bring out the best in her material. Though the band were obviously very capable, the arrangements didn’t feel fleshed out enough to carry the long set. Mica herself has a stunning singing voice, but at times came across as uncomfortable on stage. The audience was forgiving: she had many on their feet by the final notes.
This weekend of Jazz and soul music at the Buxton Festival was a real success – the programming choices made for a varied and thoroughly enjoyable few days of music in some beautiful surroundings.
Becky Alice is a London-based singer
