05 December 2015

Songs of love and despair


Rose Costi and Ben Forte performed in the late morning, for the U3A Jazz Appreciation group, in a smallish room in a club around Canberra, and it was a delicate pleasure. Just voice and guitar; no drum machine or electronics. Good solid time feel but pretty sparse for the single note solos. Nice for clarity and lyrics and a duo fellowship. Rose's gentle and thoughtful voice helped, too. No screams, much delicacy, only a few more forced lines. The tunes lent themselves to this, too. Ballads from the standards repertoire. Some were joyous or lively, like Sqeeze me don't tease me or East of the Sun west of the Moon of I hear music or How deep the ocean. Quite a few love songs, unsurprisingly. Some latin, Gentle rain, No more blues. Two sleepy people is just a huge pleasure; Don't explain is Billy Holliday at her more desperate - that one touched home. This was a lovely little concert for a quiet and appreciative and pretty knowledgeable group. Glad I got the invitation, and thanks to Rose and Ben for the great pleasure.

Rose Costi (vocals) and Ben Forte (guitar) performed songs as an unaccompanied duo for teh U3A JAG.

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