Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Caro Emerald at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, October 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
The Queen of European Jazz waves her hand in time to the motion of the scintillating sound that clutches at the air of inspiration and unrequited love, it is a flourish that gives the audience the memory of Time, of understanding that the genre in which Caro Emerald has become the iconic figure and sound, requires at all times, to flow, to be constantly in flux, that the beat that has carried her towards the figure of 100 live performances in the U.K. alone, is a constant wild animal that needs handling with almost regal, and maternal care.
When Jazz or its musical offspring is performed well, then normally it is of such high quality that it roars as if inhabited by the soul of the stars who made the genre what it is today, and in Caro Emerald’s 99th show on British soil, that roar was gifted to the Liverpool audience with a radiating smile, the polish of the sound and the drama, that one might have expected in a time when Jazz was the master of all it surveyed.
There can be no doubting the confidence in which Caro Emerald and the sublime band that accompanies her perform with, the audience perhaps expecting a sense of greatness, and receiving open handed, the communion with the genre a two-way conversation, a show where the music speaks with the dexterity of a multi-lingual actor, where the rhythm is infectious and where the audience grows with the performer, the breathlessness felt pounding in the hearts in a collective endeavour of what can only described as the Devil dressing up as an angel, the swish of tail conducting the tune.
It is easy to see why Caro Emerald has become a favourite of the Liverpool music lover, a lesson in the finer, more exuberant swing and Jazz playfulness, and in songs such as Riviera Life, Absolutely Me, Mambo Shuffle, Tahitian Skies, My 2 Cents, Night In Brasilia, You Don’t Love Me, the superb Excuse My French, Back It Up and Liquid Lunch, the music swayed in time with the crowd’s hearts, a dynamic of mutual pride, but humble enough to never let it rage out of control; that flourish of keeping time, the beckoning of beauty, it is there every time Caro Emerald and the band come to Liverpool.
There are 99 reasons in which to enjoy the performances of Caro Emerald, all of the previous nights of passion have all been worth the time spent in the company of the Queen of European Jazz.
Ian D. Hall