Review: Sunrise, Sunset

 

This is the first year of the brand spanking new Chesham Fringe Festival, and watfordfringereviews.blogspot.com is delighted to be there in support, creating a space to kick off the conversation about the dizzying array of creative fare on offer!

The stated aim of this rather formal, traditional concert was to explore the theme of Sunrise and Sunset in music across the ages, and it met its own aims with carefully planned precision.

We began with the obvious: Sunrise, Sunset from the musical Fiddler on the Roof. A beautiful rendition, this song's poignancy was the perfect opener, setting the scene for a reflection on both the positive and negative interpretations of the twilight hours. It was also a lovely choice for showing off the power of the simple piano and voice combination, and the way it allows you to focus on melody, lyrics and technique with unobscured clarity.

We were guided through a multitude of sunrise and sunset songs, and given potted introductions to context. First, the French, mostly Debussy, who approached the theme with romantic inclination, then the English who infused their folksong with sun imagery. Next the introspective Germans, who saw the sunrise as a symbol of hope, the sunset as a symbol of sadness, before some Italian choices led us to the grand finish: Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard.

Soprano Christine Cunnold had a lovely crystalline voice, perhaps attacking the higher register a little too hard but always controlling breath and pitch with consummate ease. Ably accompanied by pianist Richard Harker, they gave the impression of a long-standing and happy musical partnership.

When Cunnold stepped away from the music stand to deliver her introductions there was an immediate and delightful confidence and friendliness which warmed the whole room. It was a shame that she then returned to it for each song, as for the most part she seemed to use it as a comfort blanket rather than a memory prompt, and it definitely created a barrier between her performance and the audience. 

Overall, this was a charming set showcasing a delightful operatic voice. I hope they return to Chesham Fringe next year and give us another thoughtfully selected thematic set list.

X/twitter: @c_cunnold

instagram: @christine.cunnold

https://www.teatimeopera.com/sunrise-sunset

Review: Soul Vibe Band

 

This is the first year of the brand spanking new Chesham Fringe Festival, and watfordfringereviews.blogspot.com is delighted to be there in support, creating a space to kick off the conversation about the dizzying array of creative fare on offer!

The Drawing Room was the perfect setting for Soul Vibe Band, an eight person musical collective who gathered under the constantly extending and retracting awnings (the rain was on and off all day) to fill this cosy, eclectic outdoor space with their infectious soul-funk sound.

They opened with five original songs: Piece of Mind; Sweet Embrace; Rest in Peace; Unsteady; and Don't Get Me Wrong. All of them sounded professional and convincing, like they could have been long standing songs within their genre's back catalogue. My favourite was the bossa nova Unsteady which offered an opportunity for the band to play around with a mellower, jazzier vibe.

Next came a relentless list of popular soul-funk bangers from Luther Vandross' Never Too Much to Just The Two Of Us and Lovely Day. What lifted these choices above the quotidian was the inventive way they played with and reinterpreted them. Amy Winehouse's Back to Black was mashed with George Michael's I'm Never Gonna Dance Again, all to a thumping reggae beat. Good Times was morphed into a blink-and-you-miss-it medley of classics including Another One Bites The Dust, We Are Family, Le Freak and Uptown Funk. The band were so hot the occasional showers proved to be essential respite to cool the Chesham crowd back down. The encore (Ain't Nobody) was demanded with such immediate roars of delight that there was no doubt about how much everybody had enjoyed the set.

If you're looking to book a band to play your party, wedding or event, you'd be more than confident in selecting this professional crew. With their thumping rhythm section, amazing vocalists and stand out saxophonist, you'd be guaranteed to fill the dance floor. But me? I can't wait for their first album. With such sincere and polished original material, it surely can't be too far away.

https://www.instagram.com/soul_vibe_music

Review: Kirsty's Sing Along Party

 

This is the first year of the brand spanking new Chesham Fringe Festival, and watfordfringereviews.blogspot.com is delighted to be there in support, creating a space to kick off the conversation about the dizzying array of creative fare on offer!

My last show of the first day of the festival was Human Jukebox Kirsty Newton's Singalong Party!

Like karaoke with the pressure to single yourself out taken away, this was a raucous night of fast paced, high energy, immersive entertainment where everyone felt fully included and had the chance to sing their hearts out without having to take that sometimes scary step into the limelight.

Kirsty was masterful at creating a party atmosphere, encouraging whoops and cheers, throwing out funny lines of well-rehearsed banter, snipping songs short when they'd done their job and mashing tunes together in an unrehearsed, give-it-a-go fashion that she called Deadly Medleys. Our themes were jungle, sex and birthdays, of which there were 3 in the crowd (birthdays that is), all having a wonderful time. The whole show is a manic, frenzied pleasure boat of fun which, under Kirsty's careful captaincy, stays merrily afloat and blissfully dismissive of the rules of navigation.

Indeed, Kirsty employs a cast a background help to support with the onerous task of following the rules, and the funny interplay of her both leaning on them and dismissing them helps create the glorious sense of madcap anarchy that characterised the show. Her best friend of 30 years was on lyric duty, desperately trying to keep up with displaying lyrics on a projection screen as Kirsty dashed haphazardly from one song to another. There's no set list, but the barman was called on to refer to a waiting list of songs that ticket holders could submit via email, and they were called out from top to bottom, from bottom to top, from anywhere at all. Finally her young brother was the Time B*stard, calling out random reminders of how much time she had left.

By the end, all rules were out of the window and the polite Chesham audience were up on their feet dancing, drinking and having a whale of time. Liberation and anarchy through poptastic sing-along; this was a revolutionary tonic for the soul and long may Kirsty reign!

Review: Jordan Nash

 

This is the first year of the brand spanking new Chesham Fringe Festival, and watfordfringereviews.blogspot.com is delighted to be there in support, creating a space to kick off the conversation about the dizzying array of creative fare on offer!

My second show to see was psychedelic pop pioneer Jordan Nash performing a selection of his original songs at The Drawingroom, a cosy, eccentric venue which is part bar, part cafe, part art gallery... a bohemian vibe perfectly suited to Nash's laid back, mellow melodies.

The gig was outdoors and benefitted hugely from the glorious weather, with saturated Nash's chilled out vibes in the golden glow of summer, the perfect accompaniment for his beach-ready tunes. Dressed in white T shirt, ripped jeans and wide sunglasses, he wouldn't have looked out of place on the American West Coast, and many of his songs reflected similar themes. In Ocean, his opening song, he sang of 'living the dream of being a rock star, smoking and weed and driving fast cars', while in later tracks he quipped he's 'made a bit of money, now I'm covered in gold' and 'the worst things in life come free'. Youthful observations that, while timeless, chime especially with the Insta generation.

His guitarist Mopher was splendid, grinning raffishly and lounging idly at the side of the stage, but filling the air with precise, clear accompaniment that allowed each of Nash's songs to cut through the buzz of the day. As an outdoor gig, they were battling with the sounds of the DJ in Market Square, but after five minutes in their hands the dancing rhythms of the street were entirely forgotten and we were in residents of chill-ville. Amazingly they'd only met a week prior; the groove they captured together felt far more long established.

Nash generously shared some space for another local performer Angelica Evening, which enhanced the community-focused feel of the gig. There was lots of support from his local family and fans, and while he opened with a song he said made him feel super vulnerable to get rid off the nerves, he closed with a number he'd written only a few weeks earlier, letting us into the challenge of remembering fresh lyrics and deciding key changes.

Thus was a supremely delightful gig for a summer evening. If he's back next year with another set he ought to be one of the hottest tickets in town.

https://www.youtube.com/@Freejordannash

Review: Ad Libretto

 

This is the first year of the brand spanking new Chesham Fringe Festival, and watfordfringereviews.blogspot.com is delighted to be there in support, creating a space to kick off the conversation about the dizzying array of creative fare on offer!

My first stop on the inaugural festival day was AdLibretto at the Little Theatre by the Park. They perform one-off original musicals based, in true improvisational comedy fashion, off spontaneous suggestions from the audience. So no script, no pre-agreed lyrics or plot, just very clever, off the cuff comedy and storytelling infused with songs made up on the spot!

Today's show was, to coin a title, 'Bins and Entertainment', about a French street performer called Marcel who upsets the 'boring' town of Chesham whose residents have an aversion to street performance of any kind (lots of tongue in cheek humour here for the local audience and their first fringe!), but eventually he finds a welcome place in the town working on the bins. Fear not: spoilers have no consequence here as this particular show will never be seen again!

And that is one of the major charms of AdLibretto. Everything you watch is unique, bespoke, spontaneous, and one off. The cast work playfully and confidently together, and are generous in creating space for each other, opening up imaginative possibilities and keeping the ball bouncing (or the rubbish juggling in tonight's particular show).

Led by Neil Goulder, this is a funny, clever, engaging hour of entertainment with a truly talented pianist who keeps the musical energy going with mood enhancing instrumentals and improvised accompaniments ranging over a wide span of styles. Definitely one to catch if they return next year!

www.AdLibretto.com

Review: LoKkhi TeRra featuring Dele Sosimi

Brazil. Cuba. Nigeria. Bangladesh. India. Britain. I have never before heard a more majestic fusion of sounds from across the globe brought together on one stage, more than even that opening list describes. The joy, the celebration, the vibrancy and colour; this is what live music is all about and this is what the Watford Jazz Junction Festival has brought to the Pump House Theatre stage. A priceless gift at subsidised prices - no wonder it sold out!

The core of the sound is Afrobeats, a unifying dancing rhythm that brings all the various elements of the music together. With ten performers on stage, each with their own cultural heritage and musical influences, there was a powerful sense of connection and communication which underscored the fact that music (and the arts more generally) are the true diplomacy, building bridges across nations and cultures and communities the world over in a way that politics never can.

Lying on top of those Afro-Cuban grooves were sounds from Lagos, from India, from Bangladesh, from London and - dare I say it - from Watford! The coming together of these disparate sounds never felt forced or conflicted. It was like being in the presence of a living, breathing symbol of the interconnectedness of human beings, of the joy and playfulness we can bring to one another if we step outside of the prevailing news cycle and apocalyptic headlines, and instead remember to just enjoy one another's playfulness, love and company. The improvisations, especially from Justin Thurgur on trombone and Nick Walters on trumpet, were full of power and invention and protest, blasting away by their sheer physicality any doubt about the strength of this band's mission and message.

I guarantee every member of tonight's audience left the Pump House Theatre feeling on top of the world. A world united.

Review: Xantone Blacq and Ray Gelato & the Giants

And just like that, it’s time for the gala night of the Watford Jazz Junction festival! In only its third year, WJJ already feels like an essential and much loved fixture on Watford's cultural landscape, and the gala opening at the Watford Palace Theatre like a long standing and highly anticipated tradition. The fact that several of the festival's shows have already sold out is testament to how quickly our town has taken WJJ to its heart.

The gala evening opened with the blissful Xantoné Blacq. Resplendent in a billowing, colourful cape, wide brim hat and sunglasses, Blacq looked every inch the fashionista. His piano playing and vocal style were an exciting blend of jazz, soul and funk, a heady mix of Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. His first three songs, all originals, were contemplations on love and relationships with storytelling at their core, evoking trips to the cinema and nights full of dance. His charming interactions with the audience coaxed a fair bit of tentative singing along, which really took off when he gave his groovy version of Michael Jackson’s The Way You Make Me Feel, his voice was perfectly suited to imitating some of those iconic high register MJ sounds. His breath control was spell binding and garnered a round of applause in its own right!

After the interval, Ray Gelato and his swinging band The Giants proved a remarkable contrast. Gelato's Louis Prima style (an early influence from his father's record collection) mixed jive and swing and even a touch of rock ‘n’ roll to create a really rhythmic, vibrant, energetic set.

Gelato's wide smile and open-armed personality turned the Palace Theatre's Edwardian auditorium into a vast living room, with The Godfather of Jazz as our avuncular host. He said the crux of his performance is making people happy, a sentiment pointedly reflected in his optimistic, uplifting set list, perhaps best captured in his rendition of The Best Things In Life Are Free. Just A Gigolo/ I Ain’t Got Nobody was a perfect comic set piece with banter and wobbly vocal lines honed to perfection, and there were occasional moments of poignancy, such as the sultry instrumental version of Cry Me A River.

His original songs really hit the funny bone, as he regaled us with anecdotes about having to go to Youtube to relearn his own lyrics! 'If we listened to the experts, everything they said, forget about living we might as well be dead' was a great example of his sardonic wit and his determination to squeeze every pleasure he can out of life. The second original Bar Italia, originally written as a jingle for his friend's restaurant in Frith Street in Soho, was an instant crowd pleaser with everyone singing along to the catchy chorus.

The request section towards the end of the show had audience members shouting out favourite tracks with enthusiasm, among which choices Gelato ended up giving us Volare, which he said (tongue in cheek) he hadn’t performed in over a decade. He introduced Mack The Knife by reminding us of the difference between that inimitable swing style which we all love and the pop style which stretches and flattens out phrases to a song's detriment. Gelato then gave a masterclass performance, with a knowing twinkle in his eye, bringing Macheath to life with the shortened syllables and stabs of textbook swing style.

A mention must go to the surprise star of the show drummer Ed Richardson who turned out to be an amazing vocalist and gave us a sumptuous swing rendition of Ain’t That a Kick in the Head, and the evening ended with Blacq returning to the stage to join Gelato and the Giants on a gorgeous rendition of Have You Met Miss Jones.

Overall, a fitting opening to the third Watford Jazz Junction festival bringing together so many different strands of jazz style into a harmonious evening of pure entertainment.

Review: Frankie Goes to Bollywood

“Frankie Goes to Bollywood” is the story of a young woman who finds herself unexpectedly plucked from obscurity and thrown into the world of Bollywood stardom when her talent is spotted at an audition she only attended to support her best friend and ‘cousin-sister’ Goldy. What follows is a fast-paced, funny and emotional journey through the highs and lows of an actor’s life, specifically female actors, on the Bollywood scene.

Laila Zaidi is stunning as Frankie. Armed with amiability and charm, a beautiful singing voice and a confident stage presence, she tackles the family dominated Bollywood hierarchy head on, exposing many of the corruptions and injustices at its heart as she does. Bollywood is the biggest film industry in the world, and this musical is inspired by real stories of British women caught in the glare of its shine. This fish out of water element of the story really resonates, with Frankie observing how she feels too brown to be British in the UK, and too British to be brown in India.

Katie Stasi as her best friend Goldy is a powerhouse performer with a singing voice that blew the roof off the Watford Palace Theatre more than once, most notably in her 11 o’clock ballad. Indeed, the female characters carry the emotional heart of the show, as it’s their struggles against the patriarchal Bollywood film structure which objectify and limit them that provide the central conflicts. This is powerfully represented in the character of Malika, a feisty older actress played with serpentine venom by Helen K Wint. Malika extols the virtues of being less kind and instead celebrating your inner 'b*tch' in a song which pointedly draws out the contradictory demands faced by female performers who want to make it to the top and stay there. You need to exude beauty, but you have to be ruthless, too.

There is ample comedy throughout, especially in funny visual gags that send up the stereotypes of Bollywood films, from rose petals falling from the sky to fans used to cause hair and saris to billow romantically in the wind. There is subtler humour as well (keep your eyes peeled for a cleverly positioned Reduced Indian Film Company gag) but for me the belly laughs came from two of the male characters: Raju King, the pot-bellied, preening male lead significantly past his prime played with gusto by Shakil Hussain, and the outrageously camp choreographer Shona, played by Gigi Zahir, whose dazzlingly flamboyant costumes deserve to be persevered for posterity in the V&A. Both actors imbued their characters with subtlety and depth, turning what could have been cardboard cut out pantomime villains into layered, flawed and complex human beings.

The hardworking ensemble were jaw-droppingly terrific. Dashing back and forth across the stage in frenetic choreography, every time they appeared from the wings they were dancing, moving props, singing and dazzling, all while having changed costume in what seemed an impossibly small period of time.

The music, performed by a live band, blends Bollywood styles with traditional Western musical theatre sounds such that you’re never in doubt of the show’s hybrid context and never alienated from one world or the other. Similarly, the stage was presided over by three luminous pavilion arches that flashed a whole rainbow spectrum of colours across the course of the evening, bringing Indian architectural style into perfect harmony with the proscenium arch tradition of Western theatre.

With concept and book by Rifco Artistic Director Pravesh Kumar MBE, and songs by Niraj Chag and Tasha Taylor Johnson, this is billed as Rifco’s most ambitious musical to date, and you can see why. The audience, many of whom dressed up to the nines in radiant Indian traditional dress, gave this world premiere a celebratory feel before the show even started. That feeling was more than deserved by the curtain call. Watford is extremely fortunate to have this vibrant company bring so much exuberance to our cultural landscape. A highly recommended entertainment for musical lovers of all stripes.

Run-time: 2 hours 20 mins apprx (incl. interval)

Age suitability & content warning: 11+ recommended. Contains flashing lights and vaping.