IT HAS been quite a while since I last heard singer Liane Carroll, either in person or on disc, and her standing has grown considerably in the intervening years. She is a serial award-winner, and good judges have singled her out for special attention in a currently crowded field.
It was easy to hear why she has attracted that kind of praise. She has a powerful and highly expressive voice that is equally effective in gentle whispered ballads and full-on blues shouters, and sings with an undisguised heart-on-her-sleeve emotiona
l power (she even made herself cry on If I Loved You, a song she says holds poignant childhood associations for her).
Although she performed a single long set, it split neatly into two halves.
She accompanied herself on piano in an initial set that focused mainly on pop-derived repertoire, including a gospel-inflected Laura Nyro medley and songs by Howard Jones – not often heard in a jazz festival context – and Tom Waits (she returned to Waits for her encore).
She had featured a couple of jazz standards, including a version of Summertime that was impressive in vocal resources but rather ignored the context of the song, and turned to that repertoire entirely when pianist Brian Kellock joined her mid-way through the set.
The combination of her singing with his sublime pianism was perfect for songs such as All of Me, a melting I Got It Bad, Witchcraft and a frantic scat through Pennies from Heaven.
