Liane Carroll

Posted on 2007/11/20 23:05:00 (November 2007).

[Sunday 18th November]
Chie had found out that Liane Carroll, quite posibly my favourite living jazz performer (well it's a toss up between her and my friend Tanaka-san) was going to be playing at the Royal Opera House, of all places, this afternoon. So we had bought tickets yesterday, and I was rather looking forward to it.

It was a late afternoon performance, and we didn't do much else in the daytime prior to that.

In terms of public transport London seemed to have pretty much ground to a halt today - the Victoria line wasn't running (it often doesn't bother at weekends recently - apparently to do with engineering works), and even the buses seemed to be suffering somewhat. We should probably have got the hint when we saw a total of five buses of the same number we wanted to get on going in the opposite direction before ours turned up. It seems Whitehall was closed, which was causing major delays. Despite having left our flat at 3, for what should have only been a 25 minute journey, we only just got to the Royal Opera House in time for the start of the performance at 4. I'd experienced a similar hold-up on Friday when going to get my haircut, and I think as a result my recent fondness of travelling around London by bus may have dwindled somewhat.

Anyway, the jazz itself was unspoilt by the trials and tribulations of public transport, and I enjoyed it immensely. Liane was performing with a pianist called Brian Kellock, although she did also do a couple of songs by herself at the start. I would love to deliver some flowery prose giving a critique of their performance, but I'm no music journalist, so I struggle to recount just how great it was. It is now the third time I've seen Liane perform, and each time she seems to get more vibrant and animated - this afternoon she was scatting away like some kind of possessed witchdoctor, but as ever punctuating her angelic singing with the occasional quip in her very down to earth speaking voice, as well as the odd break to knock back some wine. In places the combination of her vocals and Brian's piano playing were wild and anarchic, and yet still engaging and melodic - I guess that's what jazz is all about.

Our little trip to jazz heaven finished around 6, which was probably just as well as my stomach was rumbling somewhat. The weather outside was utterly miserable, which did little to enthuse us to wander about a lot in the pursuit of somewhere to eat. So we settled on pretty much the closes place that we knew was good - Abeno Too, the okonomiyaki place near Leiecester Square, which was very good as always. On a whim we also popped into the Ed's Diner next door afterwards for a slice of cheesecake and a chocolate milkshake. You just get these cravings sometimes.

Back at home in the evening, Chie suggested we watch a DVD - and she had recently got a film called Match Point from Love Film. It started out promisingly, but after about half way through it began to drag absolutely appallingly, and that combined with that horrible creeping feeling you get on a Sunday evening that your weekend is rapidly running out, resulted in an excruciating last 30 minutes or so. I guess it did ever so slightly redeem itself with a bit of a twist at the end, but that aside I think I shall be picking the films I choose to watch more carefully from now on!

Isn't there a Fast Forward button on your controls?

Posted by John's Mum at 2007/11/21 17:10:43.

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