Winstone, Gesing & Venier
RNCM Concert Hall, 28 July 2011
This trio make marvellous music, complementing each other perfectly.
Norma Winstone’s voice is one of the treasures of modern jazz and her intelligent, highly literate lyrics (the song ‘The Mermaid’ took its inspiration from a poem by Neruda) range from the melancholy to the playful. You’d place the ‘ladies in Mercedes’ song among the latter, and you’d have to be a stone not to take delight in it.
The clarinet and saxophone of Klaus Gesing gave propulsion and drive to the music, while Glauco Venier on piano was inventive and boyishly impish in his playing. Listening to these three consummate musicians on a balmy summer’s evening was like sipping a drink that was cool and copacetic but with a definite kick. It was a pleasure, but not a light or an innocuous one.
Oh, and the lady’s summer dress was stunning, about as vibrantly colourful and effortlessly elegant as her voice.
