Silent Wish Records – SWRCD03
Ian Shaw (vocals); Barry Green (piano)
Recorded on 15–16 October 2024
There is a world of difference between an Ian Shaw live gig and an Ian Shaw CD. His live shows, whether in small club regular haunts like the Pizza Express or Zedel Crazy Coqs, or a largeish concert hall, like the lovely Kings Place, are mostly fun events. Shaw is a wonderful raconteur, and interviewer, with edgy humour telling very funny stories, often about his childhood and experiences in the music industry. He also sings some cleverly hilarious songs like his ode to Quinoa and parody of The Girl/Boy from Welsh Ipanema.
Technically Shaw is great singer with instantly recognisable voice, and he’s a gloriously inventive pianist, whether accompanying himself, or other singers, or just playing good solid home swinging jazz. I’ve been paying to see him for many years and he just keeps on getter better and better.
His records are a lot more serious. He does not record his ‘funny’ songs, or ad-libbing, which is probably very wise because the world already has more than enough ‘humour’ recordings that entertain for the first couple of plays and are then left to rot on a dusty shelf till the end of time. This CD is no exception to the unwritten ‘no funny stuff’ rule. It’s a very finely played (by Barry Green) and sung (by Ian Shaw) homage to the late great Stephen Sondheim.
As a brief fact re-cap, Ian Shaw has had a 35-year career, which includes winning the BBC Jazz and Parliamentary Jazz Awards. His previous albums celebrate the music of Joni Mitchell, Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. He presents on Jazz FM and is a committed activist, particularly for refugee causes.
In promo words, Shaw’s Stephensong is a “long-awaited exploration of Stephen Sondheim’s iconic repertoire (which) brings a deeply personal perspective to the songs, informed by his life, activism and artistic journey, with Sondheim’s personal blessing dating back to the 1990s” which “Shaw approaches with subtlety, precision and a storyteller’s instinct”.
The recording was made in a studio but near-live with “deliberate simplicity – minimal rehearsal and just a few takes – capturing the rapport built over decades of collaboration between Shaw and Green.”
The songs are sung straight, with no fancy dressing and new takes. “I didn’t want to show off” says Shaw. And he doesn’t. He just does the songs justice. How much you like the result will depend a lot on whether you have yet got into Sondheim. An increasing number of people – self included – are only now recognising Sondheim as one of the 20th century’s greatest songwriters; not just the chap who wrote the lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story. We are catching on late because Sondheim’s music is far removed from the traditional Great American Songbook – much like Billy Strayhorn when doing his own musical thing.
As anyone who sees Shaw live will know, he is entertainingly open about his gayness. Here, he takes a more serious tone, comparing his life experiences to those of Strayhorn and Sondheim and saying: “This album resonates far beyond the music. His activist history and lived experience give Sondheim’s explorations of struggle, survival and identity a renewed urgency. I’m gay: I’ve got scars from my Section 28 demonstrations. These songs mean something, they’re about conflict, about resilience. And we’re all feeling that now.”
“Sondheim’s lyrics are conversational but poetic, and every phrase carries its own resolution,” is Shaw’s analysis. “It’s tough, disciplined writing – but that’s what makes it brilliant. These songs are about real people, and they tell truths we all recognise.”
So don’t expect any jolly funtime singalong swingtime stuff from this CD. Take some time and make some effort to listen to the lyrics, and hopefully you will be rewarded.
Some of the songs, like “Somewhere” are quite pained. But that’s how Sondheim intended them to be. The fact that I prefer the slightly lighter “Everybody Says Don’t”, “Anyone Can Whistle” and “Children Will Listen” tells more about me than the music.
