Jacqui Dankworth
Live to Love
Specific Jazz ***1/2
Only the singer’s fifth album under her own name, it’s a solemn start on Live to Love with the title track a song her husband Charlie Wood has written and plays Rhodes and organ on. But the album is not all serious by any means, and I think on balance any demons that could have been put out on display are tucked up safely for the night. The Carole King-like ‘Sweet Devotion’ spins the album around as does a new version of ‘It's Tomorrow’s World’, one of the best loved compositions of her late father Sir John Dankworth's Jacqui has written lyrics for, the fun part of the album, with enough to reprise for kicks at the end. The African sounding ‘Malala’, written by Geoff Gascoyne and Dankworth, is the most complex and memorable track of the whole affair joyous in one sense but also hard packed with a certain atmosphere of fear that is carefully conveyed in the lyric and performed admirably by the singer. Backed by a cast of shifting band line-ups the longer version of ‘It’s Tomorrow’s World’ has a loosely jazz rock-inclined bass guitar break-out solo by Gascoyne that’s one of his best contributions while drummer Paul Clarvis’ reggae-like beat moves the playfully circuitous and familiar theme along gamefully. Later on Ralph Salmins injects some infectious momentum into Donny Hathaway’s ‘Someday We’ll All Be Free’ that also features Ben Castle’s most effective saxophone solo of the whole affair. Dankworth is a classic jazz singer, and there really aren't many singers around who you can so describe hand on heart. Her artistry and relationship with this classic tradition she's learnt so much from her mother Dame Cleo Laine is best witnessed here on Johnny Mercer’s ‘Something’s Gotta Give’, and some of the smoochier love songs of which there are a few. On what is a glossily accomplished album that values the loveliness of a melody line, the fun and intricacy of an improvisational flourish, and the power of love, she shows her undoubted class at all times. Stephen Graham
Released on 30 September