Live At Ronnie Scotts London.

Piano keys Jannette Mason Bass Phil Scragg Drums Mike Bradley Guitar Ivor Goldburg. Percussion Gary Hammond

A Tree & me by [email protected]

I was just some hand in a hands child

I grew up half hungry half wild

way out where the refuse is piling

summer breezes ain’t for sniffin’

phew, excuse me for livin’

Home was a shack with no paint

Quality folk called it quaint

When you gotta live there in it

I didn’t leave home I was driven

please excuse me for livin’

Some people say I’m deluderin’

Home with a shortage of coop

They tried to condemn me unduly

but they can’t get me down, coz to tell you the truth

I’m kinda proud of my birth

I’m well aware of my worth

because I am the salt of the earth so if your heart is unforgiving

if you think I’m no use

I don’t need your excuse.

When people act high folutin’

I high folute ‘em right back

I say, if its me you are snootin’

Youre just wasting your time as a matter of fact

I’m kinda proud of my birth

I’m well aware of my worth

because I am the salt of the earth so if your heart is unforgiving

if you think I’m no use

I don’t need your excuse.

I’ll just go right on livin’

yes its great to be livin’

Who Do You Want? Johnny Meringue. The Crocodiles by [email protected]

https://theshout.org/about/ Singing a duet at The Albert Hall with Yogeswaran and The Shout, formed in 1998 by the composers Orlando Gough and Richard Chew. It has been called a ‘vocal big band’, a ‘club choir’, a ‘vocal Stomp’, a ‘dangerous choir’, a ‘choir of Babel’ and a ‘choral phenomenon’. The sixteen singers come from very varied backgrounds – gospel, jazz, blues, contemporary classical, opera, early music– and include several accomplished improvisers. The Shout was known for it’s variety of stage concerts, music theatre and site-specific pieces. In 2001 the choir won the Time Out Award for Classical Artist of the Year. The Shout has performed with number of choirs in the UK, Norway and in Germany. Recordings Deep Blue and Tall Stories, both released as CDs

Waves 3 by [email protected]

The beauty of bird songs

In the introduction for BBC 3, I am introduced as Michael Henry with Manickam Yogeswaran. I am sure it was me at the time? My body my voice. Yoga was resplendent standing in front of the magnificent Albert Hall Organ wearing a golden suit. I was up at the back in the gods behind the stalls. Hidden.

Then I made my way down the stairs to join The Shout with Yoga in front of the Organ and the Audience. They got my name right in the programme. It was eerie standing in the dark waiting for my cue. Far away and in isolation. Once I took in the first breath I was in a place looking out over the vast arena down stairs to the light where Manickam was singing. In a sphere of vocal exploration. cg

Carol Grimes - Mother (Irregular/CG) This is a seriously fine comeback album that really Delivers! (Pun intended - remember Carol's feisty contributions to the 70s blues-soul scene with Babylon and Delivery?) Long overdue as far as Carol's many fans are concerned, Mother absolutely screams quality - though sometimes with a whisper! It was released quite a few months ago now, and met with more than a modicum of critical acclaim, mostly on the jazz circuit, yet for some reason it hadn't surfaced from my backlog of review albums until comparatively recently. And it's another one that I'm sorry to have not picked up earlier, for it's a real cracker that I've been playing a lot. Carol's a true "vocalist's vocalist", and sensuous to the last in the Billie Holiday tradition (the only contemporary comparison I dare invoke in that field is Helen Watson); she gives her all in seasoned interpretative flair, authoritatively personalising each and every song in a sequence of twelve drawn from a variety of musical sources that range from Tom Waits (New Coat Of Paint), Ron Sexsmith (Gold In Them Hills), Randy Newman (Better Than Dead) and Shane McGowan (USA) to John Lennon (the title track). Carol also comes up trumps early on in the CD with one of the best versions I know of Sandy Denny's Who Knows Where The Time Goes? (and I've heard a good few in my time ...!) – set to a mysterious, magical, languid chamber-jazz-tinged groove. And Carol's version of Joni Mitchell's Two Grey Rooms turns out to be pretty amazing too. Whether in a jazzy-blues or folk-chanson setting, Carol's diction and phrasing are exemplary, demonstrating her aptitude.

Carol Grimes, vocals;
Ian Shaw, Hammond / Rhodes, vocals;
Greg Wain, guitars, vocals;
Steve Watts, double bass;
Stan Adler, cello;
Mark Fletcher, drums, percussion, fire extinguisher;
Annie Whitehead, trombone;
Josefina Cupido, percussion, vocals;
Elton Dean, saxophones;
Harry Becket, trumpet

Part of the thisisLOCALLONDON networkE-News Music CD Reviews

Artist: Carol Grimes Album - Mother Label - Irregular

Carol Grimes, something of a vocalist's vocalist, is a British blues singer with real heritage (having recorded since 1971), who at times can remind you of Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone, Doris Day or Janis Joplin.

Here, she interprets songs by a remarkable selection of writers: Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Sandy Denny, John Lennon, Randy Newman, Shane McGowan, Ron Sexsmith and Joni Mitchell. To her credit, she makes each her own, living inside the songs rather than simply giving a reading. If only everyone who has bought a Katie Melua or Madeleine Peyroux album could listen to the character that is supposed to be present in jazz and acoustic folk songs. The choice of edgy, humorous material works perfectly and each song is deftly arranged. The album equivalent of a glass of good red on a Sunday afternoon.

Mike Rea

The Shout

Purcell Room

John L Walters

Wednesday January 5, 2005 The Guardian

Originally brought together as a vehicle for the compositions of Orlando Gough and Richard Chew, the Shout's 15 singers make a virtue of their divergent backgrounds. The resulting a cappella sound - broad, rich, thrilling - has meant that the ensemble has remained unclassifiable: too awkwardly multicultural for a bench at the high table of classical music; too unpredictable to become teatime TV favourites; too tuneful to be cool. They're so good it's possible to take them for granted.

In their latest touring show, A Day in the Life, populist seasonal songs rub shoulders with gritty originals and readings (perhaps a few too many), which include an account of Christmas in a London labour ward, an Auschwitz diary extract, and a nine-year-old's present wish list, cueing a jokily alternative Twelve Days of Christmas.

Pace and sound vary constantly, from a harmonically adventurous In the Bleak Midwinter (featuring ethereal ex-Doctor and the Medics soprano Louise Sofield), to Melanie Pappenheim's backwards version of See Amid the Winter Snow (sung while Gough chalks "40 words for snow" on a blackboard), to a spine-tingling all-female version of Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby.

The second set builds to novelty items such as Christmas Pudding, in which the males intone the contents list of a shop-bought pud; Chuck Berry's classic Run Run Rudolph; and a campy version of the Pet Shop Boys' perennially dreadful Shopping. Giles Perring, introduced by Gough as "the high priest of improbable percussion", adds minimal but highly effective details: bass drums and oxybells. The show gives many of the group a chance to shine as composers and arrangers. Song of Work by Carol Grimes has a vigour and improvised complexity that recalls The Shouting Fence. Yet the musical heart of the Shout remains in Gough's substantial compositions and arrangements, including Saltwater Laments, Personent Hodie and an intense, raw treatment of I Saw Three Ships.