Proving that great singers can be both understated and bold, the legendary Elaine Delmar thrilled the audience with her exceptional and cool trio at a brunch hosted by Jazz FM and One Jazz presenter Ruth Fisher.
Someone asked me recently about my favourite gig so far of 2025, and it was too hard to decide, and now another one has been added to the list of truly staggering gigs. I have heard Elaine Delmar sing before, but was simply stunned by her performance on Sunday lunchtime as part of the Watford Jazz Junction Music Festival.
At the age of 86, Delmar puts many younger singers in the shade with her ability to take the audience’s heart strings and rip them right out with her emotional arrangements of some classic songs, like Don’t Sleep in the Subway and Send in the Clowns. She has an innate ability to sing gently and expressively and demand your full attention.
Delmar’s band is just very special: Barry Green (piano), Simon Thorpe (bass) and Bobby Worth (drums). They have all worked together for years - decades, even - and you can see why. There is a musical understanding that oozes from every song.
The singer’s biog is impressive: the daughter of renowned trumpeter Leslie 'Jiver' Hutchinson, she was raised in a world of music and forged an illustrious career. She starred in musicals such as Bubbling Brown Sugar, Cowardy Custard, and Kern Goes to Hollywood on both London and Broadway stages, and received critical acclaim for her dramatic role in A Map of the World at the National Theatre. Elaine also appeared in Ken Russell's Mahler.
I discovered today that Delmar was born in Harpenden, just a few years after my own parents. I like the idea that they grew up together and may have known each other. My father enjoyed jazz especially and he would have loved this Sunday’s gig. When Ruth describes Delmar as “jazz royalty”, she is spot on.
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