Review: Sir Michael Parkinson presents An Evening with Clare Teal and Friends, Harrogate International Summer Festival (From York Press)

Review: Sir Michael Parkinson presents An Evening with Clare Teal and Friends, Harrogate International Summer Festival

2:18pm Monday 1st August 2011 in Music news and reviews By Matt Clark

YORKSHIRE’S most famous face steps into the spotlight, to the strains of an equally famous tune.

“I never liked that theme you know,” Michael Parkinson tells his audience. He does like Clare Teal however. “I always thought she was a bit special,” he says, before giving up the limelight to a singer he helped become a jazz institution.

Teal’s beloved ‘posh town with the posh tea room’ had been looking forward to her concert since the festival began, but while adoring fans lapped it all up, in truth she was often rather lame.

Her rendition of Tom Jones’s It’s Not Unusual can only be described as bland, while Annie Lennox’s triumphant Why became leaden and soulless, the very antithesis of what this song demands.

Teal was on better form with Great British Song Book classics, but too often she struggled to put a credible stamp on more contemporary songs.

With one exception. Elton John’s Rocket Man was sublime and streets ahead of the original. Teal sat moodily on a bar stool and with just a piano accompaniment showed what she really can do.

Equally it revealed what she should stick to.

Ian Shaw lifted things. Less safe than the bill-topper, he was a breath of fresh air. Where Ms Teal was slick, Shaw revelled in his rough edges.

Edgy and quirky he is an impassioned singer with a rawness that is true to the roots of jazz.

Then James Brown’s musical director, Pee Wee Ellis, came on and blew everyone off stage with some killer sax playing.

Clare Teal fans may disagree, but an evening with Ian Shaw and Pee Wee Ellis would have been a far better proposition.