The Pizza Express Jazz Club has confirmed dates for singer René Marie who is to begin her three-night residency at the club on the eve of the London Jazz Festival. The acclaimed jazz singer is to appear at this top Soho basement jazz spot with pianist Albert Sanz, bassist Alex Davis, and drummer Stephen Keogh. Marie’s new album I Wanna Be Evil (With Love to Eartha Kitt) is released later this month ahead of her Cork Jazz Festival appearance in October. I Wanna Be Evil begins fairly uproariously with ‘I’d Rather Be Burned as a Witch’, the Virginia-born singer/songwriter also folding in a great version of ‘Peel Me a Grape’ later in the album and best of all a nuanced take on Cole Porter’s ‘My Heart Belongs to Daddy’. It’s one of the most sensual female jazz vocals albums to come along in a long while. Marie tucks in one of her own songs, the complex and ambiguously absorbing ‘Weekend’, at the end. The Pizza shows are 14-16 November tickets www.pizzaexpresslive.co.uk
René Marie pictured