St Stephen’s Church, November 1
9/10
Her voice sparked and flared even more than her blue-and-gold gown in the lights. One moment it was chomping and grinding in her contralto range, and then, like an inverse shooting star, it dashed up to pitches beyond the stratosphere. Quite simply, Jazzmeia Horn is jazz’s most virtuosic singer. Ever.
That doesn’t mean she’s the best: the competition there is rather strong. But just as, decades ago, saxophonist Charlie Parker or bassist Scott LaFaro extended their instruments’ possibilities, so no one’s previously combined such laser-like intonation, rhythmic ingenuity and melodic invention with a four-octave range. Routinely my eyebrows assaulted by receding hairline, and my jaw tried to mate with my sternum, so improbable were her pitches and the intervals she leapt between them.
As with one of her idols, Betty Carter, you have to see Horn live to experience the gamut of her artistry: her dazzling visual presence and a personality that’s part comedian, part firecracker and part spiritual counsellor. And unlike most of her post-Carter peers, she can write quality songs – new standards, if you will. They’re not all exceptional, but those presented here were well crafted and thrilling improvising vehicles.
From her new album, Messages, came Tip, Happy Livin’, and Submit to the Unknown, the latter containing one of several gripping solos from her pianist, Victor Gould, while locals Jonathan Zwartz (bass) and Hamish Stuart (drums) comprehensively provided Horn with all she needed to take flight. Zwartz’s solo on her ballad Destiny had such profound sadness as might have made the very walls begin to weep, and Stuart featured on the amusing Voicemail Blues with typically jolting surprises and engaging musicality.
Horn still has more to learn about weighting the words of a ballad, and, alas, the church’s acoustics made the quartet’s high notes brittle and the lowest ones too muddy. But she still excelled; still exploded the potential of two standards, Darn that Dream and Our Love is Here to Stay, the latter title probably reflecting the world’s attitude to her voice.