THE
ARTS
4037 Ella, Sarah et al
My all-time favourite female singer was Ella Fitzgerald. Her repertoire of jazz standards, from ‘Moonlight in Vermont’ to ‘Manhattan’ was beyond compare. I saw her in Liverpool on a couple of her tours, one with Oscar Peterson. Later, she starred at the IBM Club in Cannes; and I met her, albeit only to exchange pleasantries, in the hotel lift.
I also loved the voice of Sara Vaughan – especially in ‘How High the Moon’. I went backstage to see her when she was in Liverpool; but she barely had time to sign my programme – which has long since been lost.
Cleo Laine - I don’t remember much of Cleo in my teens, but we have seen a great deal of her at the ‘Stables’, our local jazz club. Her voice might be at the end of its life, but her sense of jazz is still marvelous. On the other hand, we saw a marvelous rendition of Edith Sitwell’s ‘Façade’ with her and her daughter, Jacquie, reading the poetry; and the MKCO playing Walton’s music.
At the Stables we also saw Marion Montgomery, and loved the quiet (Johnny Mercer) ballads she specialized in.
Of the male singers, I loved the voice – and especially the timing – of Frank Sinatra. My favourite was ‘Songs for Swinging Lovers’, not least because of the backing by Nelson Riddle.
I loved the work of Karen Carpenter (along with her brother Richard), especially when – in retrospect – we saw the tragedy of her life. I also loved, from much the same time, the melodic music of the Beach Boys.
Of course, I was captured by the music of the Beatles. I remember being with my parents, on Merseyside when their first big hit came out – and the Liverpool Echo being full of it – and then travelling south back to London to see it become a hit there. Jonathan Power was proud of the fact that he was in the same form, at Liverpool Institute, as Paul and George.
But that was more or less the end of my involvement with pop, though I was swept away by everything Abba did – having watched their ‘Waterloo’ on the Eurovision Song Contest (just about the only good song to come out of that) and later came to like Queen and Freddie Mercury (especially having seen his memorial statue on the lake front at Montreux).
hits