{"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_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"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":861,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/12\/17\/martin-widden-wielding-his-pen-like-a-knife-to-the-heart\/","url_meta":{"origin":287,"position":1},"title":"MARTIN WIDDEN: ‘WIELDING HIS PEN LIKE A KNIFE TO THE HEART’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"December 17 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: Leeds Piano Competition Winner gives first-class recital The Great Hall concert on Thursday 1 November was a solo piano recital by Anna Tsybuleva, winner of the 2015 Leeds Piano Competition. The Leeds competition has become, in its short life of just over 50 years, one of the world's foremost\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":337,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/02\/15\/martin-widden-the-man-the-musicians-fear\/","url_meta":{"origin":287,"position":2},"title":"MARTIN WIDDEN: ‘THE MAN THE MUSICIANS FEAR’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"February 15 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: Xue Fei Yang plays classical guitar In her solo recital in the Great Hall on 8 February, the Chinese guitar virtuoso Xue Fei Yang chose a programme that gave her ample scope to demonstrate a wide range of techniques of playing the instrument. The earliest composition on the programme\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":462,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/15\/martin-widden-red-pilling-the-music-industry-one-concert-at-a-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":287,"position":3},"title":"MARTIN WIDDEN: \u2018RED PILLING THE MUSIC INDUSTRY, ONE CONCERT AT A TIME\u2019","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 15 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: Kathryn Stott It is often asserted that the sound of a violin improves in a period when it is being played quite intensively. And not only the violin - similar claims are made for other stringed instruments. Such claims are widely believed by musicians, but although careful scientific tests\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":4},"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":117,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/10\/26\/concert-review-the-brodsky-quartet\/","url_meta":{"origin":287,"position":5},"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. 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