sucked in i was - the dual attraction of 2 ladies of significance
kristen cornwall singer based in belgium and thereby implied of international repute
sandy evans on saxophone and clarinet who for me can do no wrong
every outfit she plays in of which there are many is better for her presence
no exception for tonight's performance
unfortunately tonight was a fairly average show so quite easy for sandy to shine
a case of a fine bunch of musicians and singer let down by the material
kristen started out appearing to be very nervous
displayed a very bad case of stage fright or something
that led to fluffed lines, forgotten lines and many not very good lines
she seemed to have not too much confidence in the material
which was a fairly balanced mix of her own compositions and covers
songs made famous by the likes of billy holiday, kurt elling, charles mingus, joni mitchell and alan parsons
yup - he of the alan parsons project fame introduced by kristen from the 80's
but my memory tells me more likely of the mid to late 70's
before punk came along and justifiably blew his music out of the water
it hasn't aged well judging by tonight's performance of a tune called older and wiser
'fraid not kristen - a shocker of a song and one best left in the vaults
maybe i'm being too harsh but i did try to like it - seriously - but it was a relief when it was over
while i'm at it she hauled out a few of her own lurve songs that were also as cringe-worthy
maybe it was my mood or something but structurally, lyrically, sonically, honestly they were very average at best
but all is not lost in tonights proceedings as at least 2 things were noticed and enjoyed
at one point all musicians left the stage for kristen to do a solo number
introduced as a number with the lyrics based on a slightly modified henry lawson poem
kristen tells us she has a new toy to play with and use in this tune
she sings through the first verse and then for the chorus sings into another microphone
that feeds the lines into some kind of loop machine
so that for the second verse kristen then has her own voice as accompaniment
she repeats this process 2 more times
so that by the end of the tune there are 4 of kristen's voices to be heard
all singing different lines, words and melodies but nicely harmonising
very impressive it was and she seemed very comfortable with the equipment
using her feet to control the gizmo that was doing all the trickery whilst singing
second thing that was most enjoyable with tonight's performance was rock-out mode
when the full band was working together unhindered to create a nicely organised racket
jeremy sawkins on guitar (left-handed) didn't miss a note all evening and played extra well when loud
fabian hevia on drums and percussion ditto and at his best when allowed to be inventive
kristen's hubbie christophe devisscher on double bass doing a fine job
but not in the same class as some of the exceptional local bass players seen there lately
and our favourite sandy evans doing everything and more on sax and clarinet
sandy also seemed to provide moral support for kristen and unusually spoke a few times between songs
a couple of times during the evening i felt that the band was actually under-rehearsed and lost their way
so all in all it was a rather underwhelming night at the sound lounge
i have a feeling i may have gone overboard in my expectations
better take a break for a few weeks i suspect
but there's some good shows coming up after that
good luck kristen
over
