Liane Carroll - Samara ft Carolina Lelis - Wonder of Stevie - 50th Anniversary

About

INTRO WRITTEN BY STEVE RUBIE: I have mentioned “family” several times in my notes for this Festival, but there are few artists who are considered to be more 606 family than Liane Carroll . I first came across her when I was listening to a demo tape of a jazz quartet back in the early/mid 90’s. The playing was generally unremarkable, but on three tracks was a fabulous singer who also played piano in the band. Try as I might I couldn’t find anyone who had heard of her and ended up having to call the band leader, who was very excited until I said that I was actually after a contact for the singer rather than him! Which didn’t go down that well, but he reluctantly passed on the information and the rest, as they say, is history. She turned up to do an early set on a rainy Wednesday evening and by the end we were all convinced that we had discovered a new star, and so it turned out to be. Since then she has performed at the Club on innumerable occasions and has gone on to establish herself as one of the UK’s finest singers and performers. Very much UK Jazz Royalty anyone who knows the Club will know that it would be impossible to have a 606 Festival without my friend the brilliant Liane Carroll. I have been running my Brazilian band Samara since the old Club. It’s had a number of iterations through the years, but the current instrumental lineup has been pretty consistent for a while. We have a lot of fun playing classic Brazilian MPB, tonight with our wonderful singer of the last 5 years Carolina Lelis , but we also work with the terrific Francesca Confortini, Luna Cohen and Kaw Regis who join us from time to time as well. We all dedicate this gig to our friends from Samara who are no longer with us, Ugo Delmirani and Dill Katz, who both played in the band for many years. And finishing the evening will be the brilliant “ Wonder of Stevie ”, celebrating the music of Stevie Wonder. Featuring the great saxophonist Derek Nash and remarkable vocalist Noel McCalla, we all just love this gig. All the members of the band have been stalwarts at the Club for many years and if you watch closely, you will see that pianist Neil and drummer Nic from Samara are also the rhythm section of choice for Derek and Noel!