Glasgow Jazz Festival: Martin Taylor/Alison Burns '“ Ella Fitzgerald at 100
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall ****
While Sinatra’s centenary in Scotland was a series of big band bashes fronted by such leading singing stars as Kurt Elling, Curtis Stigers and Frank Sinatra Jr, the biggest name on any of the Fitzgerald-themed Scottish concerts is a guitarist – but what a guitarist. Martin Taylor, who opened the Glasgow Jazz Festival on Wednesday with his and singer Alison Burns’s tribute, brought the house down in a way that Fitzgerald herself would have done, and in the duo format which Fitzgerald used to memorable effect with guitarist Joe Pass.
His two extended (non Fitzgerald-related) solo segments were, unsurprisingly given his status as an internationally renowned soloist, the stand-outs of the concert: tour-de-force balladeering on Hymne à l’amour (which, he joked, he used to think was a Glaswegian song because his aunty would invariably sing it after a few sherries) and a gorgeous bossa version of The Carpenters’ I Won’t Last a Day Without You.
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Hide AdWith a warm, lush voice which suited the intimate feel of the venue, Alison Burns impressed in the Ella role, bravely attempting to reproduce some of Fitzgerald’s less energetic improvisations and singing in a style which featured most of Fitzgerald’s trademark “licks”.
ALISON KERR