Believe there'll be better!

Backblip of a red letter day, as we went to see Cécile McLorin Salvant this evening, for the fourth time. We first saw her live in 2014, at the same site. It was a modest big top at the time; since then it's become a vast entertainment complex of completely over the top grandeur, with a theatre, a huge partially covered amphitheatre for summer shows, a restaurant, and acres of car parking since it is not served by any form of public transport. Meanwhile, Cécile, relatively unknown at that time, has become a global star.

Since we are superfans, and seats were not allocated, we got there an hour early and queued up with thirty or so others, ending up in seats in the centre of the second row. Perfect, although a six-foot tall woman did come and sit in front of S just before the show started. It was easy to peer round her though, and there was an empty seat in front of me, hence I managed to grab a clean shot for my blip during the encore.

Lately Cécile has moved away from the classic jazz repertoire she started with, so we were expecting something modern and experimental like her recent albums. But she definitely went back to her roots here. We got early 20th century jazz, chanson française, blues, a bolero, a song in Occitan and Haitian créole ... it was all fabulous. No-one sings like her; her voice is chamaeleon-like not just in its enormous range, but in tone, volume, and nuance. And she makes the vocal acrobatics look so easy. The trio were great too, especially the bass player Yasushi Nakamura and the cheerful, virtuosic Kyle Poole on drums. We were all spellbound. She rounded off with a medley of Sting's Until with a song she composed during lockdown, I Lost my Mind, which was absolutely compelling. I've linked to a version from her album, but this evening's performance wasn't a bit like this! Another of my favourites is calmer, Léo Ferré's Est-ce ainsi que les hommes vivent ?

Naturally she was called vociferously back for an encore, and stunned us again with Black Wing and Silver Hue, a composition based on poet Tony Harrison's translation of Aeschylus' Oresteia,. At the end of this, the whole audience was chanting over and over with the band, 
Batter, batter the doom-drum, but believe there'll be better!

Very topical. Then with a stroke of genius, they were back for a second encore, and launched into Donna Summer's I Feel Love. Such a perfect fit for her 80% boomer audience! Everyone was on their feet clapping and dancing on the spot. This is a gig that will stay in our minds forever, as the first one did.