Corinne Bailey Rae and her band gave a superb performance to the delight of a packed Queen Elizabeth Hall audience.
I first heard Corinne Bailey Rae in 2006 and bought her self-named debut album. I have followed her career ever since. My wife and I have seen her perform several times: the most recent being her excellent set in Hyde Park supporting Stevie Wonder.
The show started with ‘Been to the Moon’ a song from her last album ‘The Heart Speaks In Whispers’ which was followed by ‘Closer’ from ‘The Sea’. Corinne was in fine form and seems to have grown as a performer over the past thirteen years.
The next song was a sumptuous version of Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Stardust’. Next came ‘Till It Happens To You’ form her debut album, by now Corinne and her excellent band had the audience totally enthralled. Bob Marley’s ‘Is this Love’ followed which had an interestingly different arrangement to the original. It was so different that it took a few seconds to recognise but it worked very well.
The show continued with ‘Paris Nights/New York Mornings’, ‘Diving For Hearts’, Trouble Sleeping’ and ‘Hey I Won’t Break Your Heart’.
The show closed with two beautiful songs from Corinne’s debut album ‘Put Your Records On’ and ‘Like A Star’. The audience rose to their feet to give the performer a resounding ovation.
Inevitably, there was an encore. Corinne told us that she had started to write the song and Valerie Simpson (of Ashford and Simpson) had finished it for her. It was called ‘Do You Ever Think Of Me’ and was a beautiful song to end the evening with.
If you are not familiar with Corinne’s music I would recommend it and I look forward to hearing her fourth studio album which will hopefully be released in 2020.
Johns London Music Reviews 