{"id":287,"date":"2018-01-18T16:39:48","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T16:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=287"},"modified":"2018-01-18T17:21:55","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T17:21:55","slug":"martin-widden-britains-fiercest-music-critic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/01\/18\/martin-widden-britains-fiercest-music-critic\/","title":{"rendered":"MARTIN WIDDEN: ‘BRITAIN\u2019S FIERCEST MUSIC CRITIC’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review: Ella Remembered<\/span><\/p>\n

This was the title of a performance given in the Great Hall on 7 December as part of the University\u2019s International Concert Series. Few people who know anything about singing would need to ask ‘Ella who?’ – Ella Fitzgerald died in 1996, but more than twenty years later her recordings are still selling very well, particularly those of songs from what became known as the Great American Songbook: standards by Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers and others. This is partly due to the high quality of the songs, but also to the fact that Ella was such a high-class performer. As her recordings demonstrate, her diction was very clear, her intonation absolutely perfect, and her ability to improvise and to sing scat second to none.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clair Teal, who sang the Ella tribute in the Great Hall, measured up to this daunting track record very well. In fact, she has made a speciality of performing songs recorded by Ella. Although she only took up her singing career relatively late, in her twenties, she has been very successful, and has won many awards, most recently the vocals category at the British Jazz Awards 2017. An accomplished presenter, she comp\u00e8red the whole evening in an attractively witty manner. She was supported by an excellent trio, of piano, drums and bass.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was somewhat different from the usual run of Great Hall concerts, but nonetheless the evening attracted a good audience, of people who were clearly knowledgeable about the songs and the genre – they clapped in all the right places. It was a high-quality performance in all respects, rounding off the term’s concerts most appropriately.<\/span><\/p>\n

Contributed by Martin Widden.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review: Ella Remembered This was the title of a performance given in the Great Hall on 7 December as part of the University\u2019s International Concert Series. Few people who know anything about singing would need to ask ‘Ella who?’ – … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"MARTIN WIDDEN: 'BRITAIN\u2019S FIERCEST MUSIC CRITIC'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[202,181,64,66],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-issue-171","tag-jazz","tag-lancaster-arts","tag-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-4D","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1405,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/10\/28\/widdens-review-songs-in-the-great-hall\/","url_meta":{"origin":287,"position":0},"title":"Widden’s Review – Songs in the Great Hall","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"October 28 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Contributed by Martin Widden It is good to be able to report that some things are getting back to something like normal, or at any rate to New Normal: the University's International Concert Series resumed on the evening of Thursday 8 October. The furniture in the Great Hall had been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1104,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/12\/13\/widdens-review-can-music-comment-on-a-political-situation\/","url_meta":{"origin":287,"position":1},"title":"WIDDEN’S REVIEW – CAN MUSIC COMMENT ON A POLITICAL SITUATION?","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"December 13 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Contributed by Martin Widden Some music is composed to celebrate a person - probably the best known example is Beethoven's Eroica symphony, composed in honour of Napoleon, although Beethoven later withdrew the dedication in disgust at Napoleon's declaring himself emperor; some portray an actual event, such as Verdi's opera The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":119,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/10\/26\/music-review-lancaster-music-festival\/","url_meta":{"origin":287,"position":2},"title":"MUSIC REVIEW: LANCASTER MUSIC FESTIVAL","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"October 26 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The 9th Annual Lancaster Music Festival started just after our last subtext issue gently settled in readers\u2019 inboxes. This year two of the sponsors were iLancaster (ISS) and Lancaster University Management School and the programme featured University of Lancaster Music Society (ULMS) Big Band, ULMS Brass band, ULMS Choir and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "review"","block_context":{"text":"review","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":117,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/10\/26\/concert-review-the-brodsky-quartet\/","url_meta":{"origin":287,"position":3},"title":"CONCERT REVIEW: THE BRODSKY QUARTET","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"October 26 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Martin Widden It was once the convention that a concert would begin with a work by a composer from early times; the programme would then move chronologically through pieces by successively more recent composers. A concert by a string quartet might open with a quartet by Haydn (1732-1809), the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":540,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/05\/10\/martin-widden-snowflake-musician-melter\/","url_meta":{"origin":287,"position":4},"title":"MARTIN WIDDEN: ‘SNOWFLAKE MUSICIAN MELTER’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"May 10 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: Debussy 100 The present year, 2018, is being observed as the centenary of Debussy's death right across the musical world. Why the fuss about Debussy? Debussy's music is unlike that of any previous composer. Indeed, the music critic Paul Griffiths has written that 'if modern music may be said\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "review"","block_context":{"text":"review","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":381,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/01\/martin-widden-the-man-with-the-golden-ears\/","url_meta":{"origin":287,"position":5},"title":"MARTIN WIDDEN: \u2018THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN EARS’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 1 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: Kabantu at the Nuffield Five young musicians in line across the stage of the Nuffield, one of them squatting over a bongo drum. This was Kabantu, the Manchester-based band that played in the Lancaster Arts Concert Series on 17 February. 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