On Friday Wakefield Jazz hosts 'the Other Side of the Rainbow' the songs of Duncan Lamont. Duncan is a renowned saxophonist, having played with many of the greats, Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman and Count Basie to name but three. In between the touring and playing Duncan has also amassed a large collection of songs he has written and has a Grammy nomination under his belt, on Friday a selection of these songs will be performed by two singers, Esther Bennett and Beverley Beirne with John Crawford on Piano, Simon Read on Bass, Matt Parkinson on Drums and of course Duncan Lamont on Sax.
Esther has been touring these songs with Duncan at all the major clubs in the south, with singers Sarah Moule, Tina May and Beverley Beirne.
I caught up with Esther for a chat:
MBS - When did you first come across the music of Duncan Lamont?
EB - I knew who Duncan was, but first met him properly at the 606 Jazz Club properly to talk to.
MBS - What draws you to Duncan's songs?
EB - The words, that cover all of life's experience. The craftsmen ship of the harmonies and melodic lines, the fact that they cover every area of the jazz canon. I often wish to cover certain aspects of the jazz repertoire i.e covering songs from "Kind of Blue" or learning more songs written by Jobim - Duncan covers these areas/feels/flavours in his songwriting - so as well as representing any patricluar aspect of the jazz repertoire one is also singing an original.
MBS - It's unique to have more than one singer on a project, what inspired this idea?
EB - Duncan likes as many singers to perform his songs as possible. There are also different songs that attract different personalities and life experiences so the other singer will be able to do the songs that I don't think appeal to or represent my experiences.
I think that this also makes the whole gig more interesting - variety being the spice of life etc.
There's also the practical angle ie admin wise where you have another pair of hands to get gigs and promote them and bring in an audience.
MBS - How long has the project been going on?
EB - About 3-4 years.
MBS - How did you meet Beverley?
EB - Through you! and through facebook, which has it's negative sides but - can also prove to be incredibly useful for all kinds of reasons.
In fact it was through a negative experience on fb that we met - you were defending singers where a rather offensive but not particularly professional musician was being abusive about us. I then found out that your wife was a singer and that you were based in Leeds and I thought - ah - if I'm sourcing gigs up north it would be sensible, for all sorts of reasons, to combine with this very talented lady.
MBS - Have you any other gigs in Yorkshire?
EB - Yes - we're performing at The Ilkley Jazz Festival! As I'm sure you know!
There are some "maybes" but it's not sensible to mention them until they are confirmed.
MBS - What else is on the horizon?
EB - Other gigs in London with Tina May (606 Jazz Club, Pizza Express Dean St and Music in the Garden at Wavendon and my own Birthday gig at The Vortex London where I will be doing other material that I have been working on and some numbers from my CD "Just in Time" which was produced by Ian Shaw
MBS - Do you like Marmalade.
EB - Yes I do - chunky cut
For more information please check out the Wakefield Jazz website
http://www.wakefieldjazz.org/bands.htm
A track of one of Duncan's songs sung by Esther Bennett
https://soundcloud.com/ilkley-jazz/i-didnt-know-you-at-all
A live track of one of Duncan's Songs sung by Beverley Beirne
A track of one of Duncan's songs sung by Esther Bennett
https://soundcloud.com/ilkley-jazz/i-didnt-know-you-at-all
A live track of one of Duncan's Songs sung by Beverley Beirne
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