The Sue Richardson Trio

Fri 14^th November 2003

The Music Room, Pizza Express, Maidstone, UK.

Sometimes when musicians play together, something magical happens. There should always be at least communication and cohesion in the music, especially when professional musicians work together; but occasionally an extra-sensory development takes place for both players and listeners alike, as if the elusive Muse has deigned to descend on the gathering, and infuse all with an excitement, a spark that transcends the ordinary human experience.

This beautiful concert by the rising UK jazz star singer/trumpeter Sue Richardson turned out to be just such an event. All the best aspects of an ideal evening of music were present in abundance: magic, passion, intelligence, joy, heartache, love; all delivered with impeccable timing, timbre, and faultless musicianship by the trio. The commitment to the whole by each individual was clear, and results were enchanting: the music "lifting off' the stage and swirling amongst all present.

Sue Richardson has been blessed with a most exquisite voice: rich but haunting; honey-sweet but also fragile like glass. That voice is also multi-faceted: there's power, displayed in her raunchy composition "You chose me"; honesty ("Don't go to strangers"); virtuosity (a breakneck "But not for me"); heartbreak (her own "When or never?").

Unlike so many singers Sue is also a consummate musician, demonstrated by her changing melody interpretations on second "heads" (unlike the plethora of singers who deliver the perfunctory identical choruses at the "top and tail" of a number, like wooden bookends); her tasteful and musical scatting, and of course by her flawless trumpet and flugelhorn playing, which add yet another dimension to her performance. She also has a natural and endearing repartee with the audience - presumably gained from her years spent, as she told us "traveling the world playing jazz clubs, hotels and cruise ships".

The interplay of her husband Neal Richardson at the piano and the excellent Andy Drudy on guitar was astonishingly intuitive. Whilst both were playing chordal, rhythm instruments there was never any clumsy clashing of feel or "time". Dynamics ranged from gutsy building of raw emotion, dropping to pin-drop delicacy - the sheer energy and concentration on display was in itself almost exhausting. Seamless exchange of bass-line duties was a key feature, as was constant interaction - you really felt that every note counted, and the net result was of several musicians sounding as one -like the orchestra of the late great Duke Ellington. Most tellingly, all three performers were patently having a great time. There was even an impromptu jam - jazz violinist Helen Sherrah-Davies was in the audience and consequently invited up for a riotous "All of Me".

This was a hastily-arranged replacement gig; consequently there were far too few of us present to witness this spellbinding evening. However, we were privy to one of those rare magical music moments of which the Duke himself would have approved: This was a performance from the heart.

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