Ian Shaw's Dublin debut last Saturday underlined the fact that he is one of the better things to have happened to jazz singing in recent years. Though clearly in the line leading back to Mark Murphy, his work has a more bluesy, more gospel-tinged feel, and it's a tribute to Murphy that his influence can inspire two singers as different as Shaw and the marvellous Kurt Elling.
Shaw's range is amazing, from falsetto shrieks and moans to full-bodied rumbles from the bottom of the baritone. Added to a microphone technique that can get subtle shades of tone and volume from the same note and heighten the most dramatic parts of a phrase, it places an extraordinary degree of vocal expressiveness at his disposal. And, as a skilled one-time trumpeter and pianist, he has the ear and musical nous to deploy his abilities to considerable effect.
His timing is also impeccable. Placed in the context of a first-class working group- Ben Godfrey ( trumpet/flugelhorn), Thad Kelly ( bass), David Ohm ( drums) and the outstanding James Pearson ( piano)- it offered a crispness and security even when he pushed the improvisation boat out, which he seems more willing to do in concert than in the studio.
In that he's wise. Concert risk-taking is often a fine one-off, less likely to stand up to repeated listening, which is probably true of some of the things he did. But at his best, with greatest attention to lyrics, he has a mixture of irony, empathy and amiabilty that resulted in superbly delineated versions of I Keep Going Back To Joe's, Ruby, How Little We Know (a marvellous vocal/piano duet segued into The Very Thought Of You with an opening vamp based on All Blues) and above all, a gem-like Old Friend that was total pleasure.
