Girls just want to have fun - Music - Arts - Evening Standard
       

Girls just want to have fun

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"We're The Passion," said Liane Carroll, jabbing a coy finger at Sarah Colman and Jacqui Dankworth to confirm that jazz collectives had entered an exotic new marketing era. To call them her fellow singers would certainly have been wrong, since groups like these put female performers in total touch with their girlie side.

Liane, keeping busy lately after picking up an armful of well-deserved awards, was much the ballsiest performer of the three, musically speaking. Her punchy gospel piano was ideal on Neverlands and Laura Nyro's And When I Die, while her vocals, boosted by a flawless falsetto, were the most probing.

Presumably it was also her vocal harmonies that enriched each number. The usual format, as on Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most, was to share out the main melody line before blending the voices together on the bridge.

The experienced Jacqui handled everything smoothly, though her overstretched facial expressions and melodramatic songs (Be Kind to Yourself, Blues Don't Really Care) bore the hammy hand of Sondheim.

Colman was more substantial. Modulating from slow 4/4 into fast 6/8 on a clever arrangement of Never Will I Marry, her voice had power, purity and a delicate natural vibrato.

Altogether, The Passion seemed a worthy act. Girls just want to have fun, they say, but these three have also done the necessary hard work.

The Passion
Pizza Express Jazz Club
Dean Street, W1D 3RW

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