delightfully fresh and airy feel about Rachael Calladine’s CD.
33Jazz
Rachael Calladine (vocals); Pat McCarthy (guitar); Andy Tytherleigh (bass); Simon Potts (drums)
The Game / Trouble in Mind / What a Difference a Day Made / Let’s Go Live in a Lighthouse / Like Young / Northern Lights / Dream a Little Dream of Me / Happening / The Air that I Breathe / Peace
You’ll very likely, like me, not previously have known about singer Rachael Calladine. The rather brief sleeve and promo notes for this burned CD tell that this is her first recorded work in over a decade, having spent the time developing a career in Dubai and the wider Middle East. Mr. Google doesn’t add much more than list some of the night spots around Dubai where she has been performing since leaving the UK when working as “lead vocalist with the London based jazz/hip-hop fusion collective Us3”. She is here “returning” to acoustic jazz and blues rather than hip-hopping.
Ms Calladine is backed on this album by Pat McCarthy on guitar, Andy Tytherleigh on bass and Si Potts on drums. The material is a mix of originals and standards: The Game and Northern Lights by Calladine and McCarthy, Happening by Calladine and Brian Tharme, Let’s Go Live in a Lighthouse from McCarthy, Like Young by Andre Previn, Trouble in Mind by Richard Jones, What a Difference a Day Made by Maria Grever and Stanley Adams, Dream a Little Dream of Me by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwant, The Air That I Breathe by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood and Peace by Horace Silver.
As the promo notes so rightly say, singing with just guitar, bass and tasteful drums leaves a singer “nowhere to hide”. But Ms Calladine has no problem with this and comes across as a strong, confident talent, lightly swinging over McCarthy’s lovely guitar bed, Tytherleigh’s solid and melodic bass and Pott’s tasteful drums.
Obviously, I have no idea why Ms. Calladine left the UK for the Middle East music scene but whatever the reason she is now an accomplished and appealing performer. Having been to a lot of night spots in posh hotels round the world (booked and paid for by press and PR people showing me factories that churn out electronics, I hasten to add) I can assure that working their bars is not an easy ride for any singer. More like wood-shedding in fact and Rachael Calladine sounds more than ready for a wider and more appreciative audience than noisy drinkers gobbling peanuts. Crazy Coqs at Zedel, Pizza Express or a late show at Ronnie’s perhaps? If so I do hope she can take along this exceptionally sympatico trio. In the meantime, I’ll be happily playing her CD.
One little detail intriques. The CD was recorded at Steinway Recording, Fulbeck, near Grantham on the Lincolnshire/Nottinghamshire border. The woodland studio promotes itself as “a purpose built recording facility featuring a pristine Steinway model B grand piano”.
“For recording piano there is nothing more inspiring than the real thing and when it is a Steinway piano there is nothing better” says the studio.
There’s no piano here but Pat McCarthy does such a terrific job with six strings that there being no pianist just doesn’t matter. Perhaps just playing in the same room as a fine Steinway does something for the sound.
The studio also has “heat recovery fresh air ventilation… with fresh air diffused within the studio and isolation areas through a bespoke air diffusion sock which achieves draught free and silent ventilation – a very comfortable environment in which to perform and create.”
Perhaps this contributed to the delightfully fresh and airy feel about Rachael Calladine’s CD.
Meanwhile I am on the lookout for a CD of jazz piano recorded on the Steinway at Fulbeck.
