Jean Carne, who has been in the music business for fifty years, showed that she still has the voice, energy, enthusiasm and stage presence to entertain an audience.
I am a little surprised that I had never heard of her Jean Carne until she was booked to appear at Hideaway last year. I was booked elsewhere at that time. However her performance was so highly rated by an attendee, whose opinion I value, that I made sure that I saw her this time around.
Her voice sounded good, she has a very likeable personality and she sang some beautiful songs. She spoke warmly about performers she had known like Teddy Prendergrass , Grover Washington Junior and Aretha Franklin, who are no longer with us and others like Martha Reeves who are still performing.
What impressed me most was that Jean Carne asked the audience for requests in both sets and sang more than half a dozen of them. Few performers do this. Of those I have seen in recent years only Springsteen comes to mind and he insisted that his E Street Band are familiar with all of his back catalogue. Jean Carne had a British band who knew only the songs they had rehearsed, but did join in with some of the others. Generally, Jean Carne was singing unaccompanied which is a challenge, however much experience a performer has.
I knew nothing about Jean Carne’s songs but enjoyed the night. Highlights were, ‘ Closer than Close, ‘ Don’t Let It Go To Your Head’ and two duets originally recorded with Teddy Prendergrass with backing singer Nic Vani, a South African who starred in the London production of ‘Lion King’, he showed he had a beautiful voice.
A wonderful evening ended with rapturous applause from a sell-out audience.
Johns London Music Reviews 