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Clare Teal and the RNCM Big Band

Venue: RNMC
Town: Manchester
Date: March 28th
Website: http://www.clareteal.co.uk/

This was the perfect combination- multiple winner of Jazz Singer of the Year ,Yorkshire-born Clare Teal and the very talented young musicians of the Royal Northern College of Music Big Band performing songs from the Great American and British Songbooks at the RNCM , one of the UK's leading music conservatoires. Clare's tenth album "Hey Ho" features classic British songs spanning a period of nearly 120 years , ranging from William Butler Yeats to Snow Patrol and Annie Lennox.

After rehearsing with the Big Band, Clare described them as "amazing" musicians . It should be borne in mind that the 17 musicians who make up the Big Band are primarily classical musicians but they really can swing and clearly have a great affinity for big band music. Their musical director is Mike Hall who has conducted the Big Band with great gusto for the past 13 years. The Band is a real credit to his enthusiastic leadership.

The Big Band opened each half of the concert with spirited instrumentals. In the first half they played Samba del Gingo [ Gordon Goodwin] , Lowdown [Thad Jones] and best of all, Minuano by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays ,which rose from a brooding start to a thrilling crescendo ,with some particularly impressive trumpet playing.

Clare then joined the band for her first song " Too Darn Hot" ,which was quite appropriate considering that it was 21 degrees centigrade outside , in Manchester ,in March! This was followed by four familiar numbers from the Great American Songbook - "Sway", "Skylark ", "Blues in the Night" and "Get Happy". "Skylark " by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer was particularly enjoyable and featured some nice flute by Helen Wilson. "Get Happy " had a great groove to it and Clare's vocals recalled the great Judy Garland who sang it in her last MGM film "Summer Stock" [ interestingly, Clare has played support to Judy's daughter Liza Minelli ,which I know is one of her career highlights].

After the interval, the Big Band got off to a swinging start with Horace Silver's "Nutville" ,followed by Billy Strayhorn's romantic "Chelsea Bridge" which featured a lovely trumpet solo from Mark Harrison.The Big Band's final instrumental number was the extraordinary "Choro Dancado" by visionary orchestral jazz composer Maria Schneider ,which featured amazing wordless vocals from sax player Ellie Pike.

Clare returned to the stage with a rousing version of Van Morrison's uncharacteristically cheerful "Bright Side of the Road" ,followed by a bossa nova interpretation of the Tom Jones hit "It's Not Unusual" ,which is one of the highlights of Clare's "Hey Ho" album. Also from that album ,Clare sang great new arrangements [by Grant Windsor] of Annie Lennox's "Why" and Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars". Clare came in for some stick from the "jazz police" for covering "pop " songs but , as she points out, a great song is a great song whenever it was written .As she also points out ,Count Basie covered at least one Beatles song !

I particularly enjoyed "Chasing Cars" which featured some lovely piano from Liam Waddle and a poignant vocal duet between Clare and trumpet player/singer Mark Brazier.

The final number was a raunchy version of Willie Dixon's "I Just Wanna Make Love To You" [as made famous by the late Etta James ]. It was a great way to end a most enjoyable evening .Clare is a wonderful singer and she established a great rapport with the audience with her bubbly personality and witty between-song banter. Add to that the superlative musicianship of the RNCM Big Band and you get a hugely entertaining show.

Peter Cowley