Last Tuesday a friend of mine member of the Industry Showcase invited me to a preview of Moncrieff’s show at the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, in central London. At first I was supposed to review this act only — or at least give my opinion — but as soon as I got there, I decided to share with you my opinion on the bands I had the chance to see perform.
As soon as I climb the stairs making me regret my pre-gig cigarette, I was instantly charmed by the venue and the coziness it offers. When one side of it offers the audience booths to talk, drink and enjoy the gig, the other part of the room, just by the entrance, offers a large space for people to gather and dance in front of the stage. With the wall painted in red, the venue instantly announces that the atmosphere will be enjoyable and with the highlight of the nights being the talents continuously appearing on the stage.
Part of the ceiling of the venue, made of skylight windows, offers the audience to appreciate the starry night happening outside, just like it happened on Tuesday. It looked like the starry night, along with the Moon, were waiting for the music stars to finish their gig and come back home, after they escaped the sky to brighten up our night.
• Joshua Kyeot •
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| Twitter / JoshuaKYEOT |
The first artist that I saw performing, the one that made me want to review the whole night was Joshua Kyeot, a man with a powerful and magical soul voice that makes you want to listen for more. Engaging with the audience asking them to participate to the performance of the song by singing a series of "OH-OH" transforming the whole room into this gigantic label studio.
Along the song, I have realised that everyone was transfixed by the words of this great talent and could not take their eyes out of him. And his voice… Kyeot’s voice was a pure and powerful voice to listen to, which makes go to a state of lightness, grace a levity. A state that instantly makes you want to share some love and happiness with the person standing right next to you.
While he was singing the chorus of one of his songs ‘I’m still in love with you’, the room was instantly filled up with an aura of love that made me want to embrace the moment and hug everyone around me. And when this happen, it means that I enjoyed the show. Great job.
Joshua Kyeot's useful links
• Scarlett Stewart •
The time for me to get a glass of coke at the bar and stand back to my hidden spot by the door that the second act was on stage. Scarlett, along with her brothers at the piano and the double bass, arrived on stage like a delicate flower who appeared to almost regret the idea of blossoming on stage.
With a shy voice and hidden behind the microphone, this singer who looked like a young version of Alicia Keys surprised everyone as soon as the first note came out of her mouth. It didn’t take long for people joining her in the hand clapping and fingers snapping. The room was filled in with good vibes and perfect rhythm, making people relax, forget and dance.
During her performance of the song ‘Brown Sugar’ she tried to make the audience repeat a sentence, to make everyone become her new background singer. However people — and I — were too busy being amazed and speechless after hearing the high-pitch note the young singer had just shared with us to fully understand the words we had to repeat.
To me, and I think I can also talk on the behalf of most of the people who came down to Ronnie Scott’s that night, with this performance, I have realised that a new jazz star was born.
Unfortunately, I have not found any website nor picture for this act, which is sad.
• Rothwell •
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| Facebook / OfficialRothwellMusic |
The third artist to share her passion with a group on anonymous was the extremely talented Rothwell. And once again, I found myself speechless after the first note. I remember taking 5 minutes before being able to gather my thought and write on my phone (where I take my notes during a gig) "She already has the voice of a great and successful singer".
Soon after that I understood what was about this voice that I loved so much. Not only was it powerful and perfectly pitched, but it had this little something that I hadn't heard for a long time; this little thing that I heard last in Adele's voice, which made me love her. After a song I was already addicted to this voice. But what do I mean by that?
As soon as I heard Rothwell's voice, I was filled in with the feeling of extreme ligthness. By closing my eyes, I could see myself doing a road trip surrounded by a green countryside the wind running through my hair. By opening them, even though I was still in a room full of strangers, it felt like everyone was captured by this voice. No one was moving other than for dancing, voices of people talking were lost in the silent our minds created to enjoy the performance. This voice made me want to instantly travel, to fly a glider to discover new horizons and enjoy the view. This is how powerful this voice is.
How not to be instantly addicted to the voice of this woman, who appeared to be a shy girl with a sweet voice at first, before sharing her talent and powerful voice with us? How not to enjoy the performance of this act who found the perfect harmony between her guitar and her voice? She just let us one choice during the performance: we could only listen, be amazed and enjoy the notes of this talent who had been hidden in small venues of London for way too long now.
Rothwell's useful links:
Rothwell will be performing at The Islington on 21st May. More info here.
• Moncrieff •
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| Facebook / MoncrieffMusic |
And, finally. The moment I went to Ronnie Scott's for had finally arrived. Moncrieff was about to go on stage. The time for me to grab another coke at the bar and come back to my spot that everyone was keeping empty for me, and the gig started.
A band composed of a double-bass, percussions, keys, an electric guitar and back-up singers was gather around singer of Moncrieff, Chris. Before the performance started, Chris appeared to be this shy Irish boy on Christmas Day, who is excited to be present and impatient of the audience's response, afraid in a way of disappoint them. And once again, everything changed when the music started.
After the band started the show in a pop-jazz kind of atmosphere, Chris opened shared with his a voice that I did not expect from him, I have to admit. I was instantly filled with joy and happiness, having a small smile on my face knowing that I could share positive comments with them and my friend from the Industry Showcase. While this left me speechless for a few minutes, I managed to write about a dozen times on my phone the word "wow" in capital letters followed by a rhetorical question that I was mentally asking Chris and myself: "But how can you disappoint people with such a voice?"
Then came the moment when they covered a song from James Bay, which could have been the moment for me to change my opinion on this act — as I believe James Bay is one of the greatest artists of the moment. But they did it again. They made me speechless. They created a perfect harmony between the voices and the instruments. And despite a small couack in the voice at some difficult part of the song, Moncrieff nailed it.
This atmosphere, this melody, this rhythm, this harmony, and this voice were not only extremely professional and great, they also project the audience to this state of instant, happiness, and instant need of discovering a new place, of escaping the busy life of busy London. While the group was engaging with the public offering them a rhythm to relax, forget about everything around them and dance, the audience was embracing the moment enjoy every single moment of it — as I could understand by the genuine smiles appearing on people's faces during the show.
And when the performance was reaching to its end, final notes were floating in the air while the artificial silence that my mind had created by blocking every external noise was becoming real. And when I had spent the whole show trying to figure out who Chris's voice made me think of, the last word made me click. Chris has a voice as professional and powerful as Hozier, a voice that you can't stop listening to, a voice — and a name — that we are going to hear about in the media soon enough.
Moncrieff's useful links.
Moncrieff is performing at The Hospital Club for the Industry Showcase tonight. More info here.
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I would also like to point out something that amazed me almost as much as every talent performing. It looked like every single Londoners able sing decided to gather at Ronnie Scott’s to create a perfect harmony with all the acts performing there. How is that possible?
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Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club's useful links:
Industry Showcase's useful links:
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Hope you enjoyed it,
Have a good day,
xx
