Playing truant

Choir practice with my real choir today (as opposed to the substitute one). First time for a year -- hard work, but what a treat! Working on music and having it sound the way it should when you sing it. The substitute choir are nice people, but they don't really care about singing the right notes in the right order.

I slunk off early though, so that we could go and see Cécile McLorin Salvant at Sortie Ouest in Béziers. Enjoyable though choir was, that was a good choice too. She is amazing! As we left, S said, "Why isn't she famous yet? She must be well into her thirties." She's only twenty-four, and she won the prestigious Thelonious Monk competition when she was twenty. Her poise and assurance, not to mention her fabulous technique, make her seem older than her years. It's not often you go to a jazz concert and the audience sits in a spellbound silence at the end of each song before breaking into tumultuous applause. Statuesque, with close-cropped hair and big white-framed glasses, she moves slowly about the stage, puts thought and care into every note, and has a wonderfully expressive face and gestures. And her voice! It reminds me of a clarinet, with a range to match: not for nothing has she been compared to Sarah Vaughan. She gives a lot of space to her trio of musicians too; pianist Aaron Diehl is so cool. Have a listen (the pianist in this video is Aaron Diehl)... Read more about her here . And then, if her list of dates shows anything near you, go and see her!

Sortie Ouest has a small restaurant where we ate before the show. Space is at a premium, so the waitress invited us to share a table with another couple. We had a nice chat with them, quickly discovering that Patrick, a history teacher, had taught all three of the children of S's hiking friend Claude. It's a good idea sharing a table with strangers at this type of event, because you are bound to find something in common. All in all, a good day!