Katriona Taylor Quintet, Kidderminster Jazz Club, St. Ambrose Parish Centre, Kidderminster, Worcs., 07/03/2025

Katriona Taylor – vocals, Peter Hammond – piano, Simon Spillett – tenor sax, Geoff Tooley – electric bass, Aaron Moloney – drums

Vocalist and songwriter Katriona Taylor has previously featured on the Jazzmann web pages via reviews of her albums “Precious Time” (2008) and “Blind Passion” (2021), the latter a particularly impressive offering. Reviews here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/katriona-taylor-precious-time
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/katriona-taylor-blind-passion

Unlike many other jazz vocalists Taylor writes much of her own material and her latest release “Daring Dreams”, which appears on her own DivaDoll record label is comprised entirely of original songs.

Previous recordings include  “You Are My Melody” (2005), which saw her backed by the members of the Neil Cowley Trio, and the concert recording “One Night Live” (2006) plus,    the now deleted EP “Olliewood”  (2003).

Katriona is the daughter of Roger Taylor, the former UK number one tennis player and Davis cup captain, who was himself a jazz enthusiast. She abandoned a legal career as a London lawyer to concentrate on her musical career, highlights of which include support slots for guitarist / vocalist George Benson and for the James Taylor Quartet.  She appears regularly at London venues such as Ronnie Scott’s and particularly at The Bull’s Head in Barnes.

Taylor also works as a vocal coach, radio presenter, voice-over artist and as a jazz educator hosting workshops, masterclasses and corporate motivational events.

Having enjoyed hearing Taylor on disc I was particularly looking forward to tonight’s show, which drew another large and supportive crowd to St. Ambrose.

Given her lineage it is perhaps appropriate that Taylor should live in Wimbledon and she had travelled up from SW19 with her regular pianist Peter Hammond. They were joined by a rather special guest on tenor sax, the great Simon Spillett, who was ‘depping’ for Taylor’s regular sax player Vasilis Xenopoulos. She could hardly have found a better replacement and I was very surprised to learn that she and Spillett had never worked together before, although I don’t suppose Spillett plays many shows as a sideman these days. It seemed to suit him, he was very relaxed and jovial, but as quick witted as ever.

Completing the line up was the Midlands based rhythm section of Geoff Tooley, from Northampton, on electric bass and Coventry’s Aaron Moloney at the drums. Moloney had previously visited Kidderminster Jazz Club in March 2023 at their old home at 45 Live as part of a quintet led by vocalist Esther Bennett. The enterprising young drummer also runs his own regular Friday night jazz sessions at Warwick Arts Centre, from which he was taking time out this evening.

As this was essentially a one off line up the focus was largely on much loved jazz standards chosen by Taylor, her selections reflecting her love of such great American jazz vocalists as Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. But pop and soul have always informed Taylor’s music too and there were also songs associated with Nancy Wilson and Etta James and particularly Nina Simone, the latter the subject of a themed show that Taylor has performed at numerous London venues. Two lengthy sets embraced a variety of jazz styles with Taylor and the quintet visibly growing in confidence as the evening progressed. She was even able to include a clutch of original songs chosen from the “Daring Dreams” and “Blind Passion” recordings.

Things got off to a rousing start with an Ella inspired version of “A Foggy Day In London Town”, which featured a concise tenor sax solo from Spillett, the illustrious ‘dep’ quickly making his presence felt. At this juncture Taylor’s vocals were a little too low in the mix, a fact quickly noted and immediately rectified by KJC’s long serving and consistently excellent sound engineer John, so well done to him for that.

Next Taylor paid homage to the late Nancy Wilson (1937-2018), describing Wilson as a “great singer of great songs” and informing us that Wilson had recorded a total of seventy albums during her decades in the music business. This was typical of Taylor’s presenting style, concise and informative and imbued with an obvious love for all genres of music. The ballad “Save Your Love For Me” saw Taylor’s vocal lines shadowed by Spillett’s sax as the pair quickly established an impressive rapport. Tooley on electric bass and Moloney on brushed drums also played their part as they offered sympathetic support, with Spillett again the featured instrumental soloist.

Inspired by recorded versions by Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra the Taylor quintet’s rendition of “The Best Is Yet To Come” offered pianist Peter Hammond his first solo opportunity of the evening, which saw him extemporising impressively at KJC’s upright acoustic piano, an instrument christened “Delphina” in honour of the late mother of KJC co-ordinator Annette Gregory.

As alluded to previously Taylor has recently been performing a Nina Simone themed show and several of tonight’s selections were to come from the Simone repertoire. Taylor told us something of Simone’s original ambition to become a concert pianist,  a plan thwarted by the racism of the classical music establishment, just one of the many injustices that fuelled Simone’s political activism. Instead Simone established herself as a singer of jazz and soul music and tonight Taylor and her band performed a bluesy and soulful Simone inspired version of “I Put A Spell On You”, with Spillett the featured instrumentalist with an earthy tenor sax solo.

 Taylor has been visually impaired / registered blind since childhood (she suffers from the rare condition Stargardt’s Disease) and has drawn inspiration from blind musical artists such as Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Jose Feliciano and Diane Schuur. The album “Blind Passion” included songs associated with these artists alongside other standards plus a handful of originals. One of two Stevie Wonder tunes on the album is a slowed down arrangement of   “My Cherie Amour”, dedicated tonight to Taylor’s daughter, which saw Taylor’s vocal phrases answered by Spillett’s tenor sax with subsequent solos from Hammond at the piano and Tooley on electric bass. A late replacement for the advertised Wayne Matthews Tooley is also a guitarist and his solo here had a guitar like quality that reminded me of the great American bassist Steve Swallow. When I spoke to him after the show Tooley was understandably delighted by this comparison!

Also from the “Blind Passion” recording the decision to include the Taylor original “Make Me Wanna Stay” spoke volumes for the quintet’s growing confidence.  This proved to be an a buoyant jazz / pop / soul crossover featuring the composer singing of her love for her partner in an arrangement that included a suitably warm toned tenor solo from Spillett.

Gospel flavours were stirred into the mix with an arrangement of the Etta James song “At Last”, with Spillett’s tenor again mirroring Taylor’s vocal line, s in addition to sharing the solos with Tooley’s bass.

The first set concluded with a joyous, fast moving version of Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night In Tunisia”, a song recorded by both Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. Tonight we also enjoyed the rarely heard lyrics with instrumental solos coming from Spillett and the impressive young drummer Moloney, who had clearly established a good rapport with the saxophonist. A great way to round off a hugely enjoyable first set that had embraced a wide variety of jazz styles in a thoroughly entertaining fashion.

Set two provided more of the same, commencing with “Secret Love”, famously sung by Doris Day in the movie “Calamity Jane”. Again Spillett’s tenor mirrored Taylor’s vocal lines and he also featured as the instrumental soloist.

Inspired by the Dinah Washington recording Taylor’s version of “Mad About The Boy” has recently acquired an unexpected degree of topicality thanks to the newly released Bridget Jones film. This commenced with a passage of unaccompanied piano from Hammond that evolved into a voice and piano duet, with electric bass, brushed drums and finally tenor sax eventually added. In a sense this tune was something of a showcase for Hammond, who was also the featured instrumental soloist.

The musical relationship between Taylor and Hammond was key to the success of tonight’s performance, with the pianist functioning as the ensemble’s musical director, despite Spillett taking the lion’s share of the instrumental solos. Hammond was to continue in a key role as Spillett sat out for a performance of her original song “I Feel Alive” from her latest album “Daring Dreams”. This was introduced by a combination of piano and electric bass with Taylor’s vocals subsequently added as a folkish melody was combined with conversational lyrics. Once Moloney’s drums had also been added to the mix Hammond was featured with a gently lyrical piano solo.

Spillett returned for “The Work Song”, another item from Taylor’s Nina Simone show. Inspired by the slave songs of the Deep South this was a highly rhythmic piece in which Moloney’s drums were prominent in an arrangement that also featured Spillett’s powerful tenor sax solo.

Unaccompanied piano introduced Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood”, again evolving into a voice and piano duet. Electric bass, brushed drums and smokey, seductive tenor sax were added, leading to a skilfully constructed sax solo from Spillett.

An uptempo arrangement of the Rodgers & Hart song “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” was inspired by a recording by Ella Fitzgerald and included instrumental solos from Spillett and Tooley.

Taylor informed us that in addition to her Nina Simone themed show she has also performed themed shows honouring Burt Bacharach and Sergio Mendes, plus a 1980s show featuring her jazz arrangements of pop hits of the period (Kylie Minogue etc.). But tonight she stuck with Nina and the ballad “Wild Is The Wind”, introduced by piano and electric bass with vocals and brushed drums subsequently added. Once more Spillett’s tenor shadowed Taylor’s vocals, but it was Hammond who emerged as the featured instrumental soloist.

Taylor’s love of Brazilian music eventually found expression via a bossa style arrangement of the Cole Porter song “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To” with instrumental solos from Spillett on tenor and Hammond at the piano.

The evening closed with a Nina inspired version of Dr. Billy Taylor’s “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”, introduced by a voice and piano duet and featuring an authentic gospel flavour with Taylor’s soulful and emotive vocals augmented by some fine instrumental soloing from Hammond and Spillett.

The evening had concluded as rousingly as it had begun and no prompting was needed for the quintet to deliver a deserved encore with another classic from the Simone songbook, that classic celebration of self “I Got Life”, complete with soaraway tenor solo from Spillett. A great way to end a hugely successful event for Kidderminster Jazz Club. On a personal note I would have liked to have heard a few more of Taylor’s original songs but what we did hear was more than acceptable and was warmly appreciated by the audience as a whole.

It was also interesting to see Spillett performing in a ‘sideman’ role rather than fronting his own Tubby Hayes inspired quartet. He slotted in superbly and the gig offered a good demonstration of his adaptability and versatility as a player outside of his usual context.

My thanks to all five members of the band for speaking with me afterwards and it was good to meet up with Katriona at last after previous email contact.

Katriona Taylor’s recordings are available via her website http://www.katrionataylor.com

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