Louise Clare Marshall and the Brethren gave an uplifting and highly entertaining performance which showcased Louise’s multi talents and versatility and the talent within the band. This is yet another great gig hosted by Pizza Express in Holborn.
Louise is best known for being a member of Jools Holland’s touring company, however she is an accomplished solo performer. My wife and I first saw Louise perform solo at Hideaway, Streatham back in May 2010 and this was the eighth time we have seen her as a solo artist. It has been fun seeing her development over this period. Louise is not only a fine vocalist but has written several high quality songs and is a good pianist.
Last night’s show open with two of Louise’s own songs from her second album ‘Beautiful’. The opener was an up temp number performed with the full band, the second the title track from the album, a slower number which featured Louise on piano. The songs over the evening embraced a number of genres, Soul, RnB, Jazz, Rock and Reggae. The majority of the songs were self-penned but there were covers of songs made famous by the likes of Candi Staton, Ray Charles, Al Green, Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin.
The band featured four very talented musicians. Frank Tontoh on drums (who we had last seen on the West End stage performing in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill), Winston Baptiste on Bass, Luke Smith on Keys and Dave Ital on guitar). They were all given opportunities to display their talents throughout the evening.
Briefly in the second set the band left the stage whilst Louise performed ‘Wait For You’ the title track from her first album and the first song that she wrote. Still without the band Louise then performed Paper Planes (a cover of the song sung by Hoseah Partsch) with her eleven year old daughter, which must have been a wonderful experience for them both (it certainly was for the audience). When the band returned she performed with her sister Melanie, who remained on stage until the end. The show closed with a reggae version of ‘Chain Reaction’ and not surprisingly Louise was called back for an encore which was her version of Aretha’s Rock Steady (one of the songs that Aretha wrote for herself).
At the beginning we were told that there would be two sets of 45 minutes, the first only slightly overran but we were treated to a second set which lasted more than 75 minutes.
We arrived with high expectations and Louise did not let us down. If you have the opportunity I would recommend that you go and enjoy her music.
Johns London Music Reviews 