Starve A Fever

On Saturday, I headed over to Pauper's Pub with great anticipation for a Singer's Jazz Series show. The night was billed as "Songs Sung by Peggy Lee". The singer was one of my favourite local songstress, Emilie Mover. Her restrained voice seemed a perfect fit as an homage to Peggy Lee. In fact, she had put out in 2013 just such an album.

Tonight, she was part of a Jazz quartet comprising of her saxophonist dad Bob Mover, pianist Bernie Senensky, and bassist Artie Roth. Over two sets, she covered every song from the album including He's A Tramp, It's A Good Day, and Black Coffee. The band exchanged solos on almost every number, too. Normally, I'm not so fond of such "wankery" but I didn't mind tonight. For one thing, though the solos ran the gamut from wistful slow notes to energetically fast runs, they all held the shape of the song.

With live performances, there are hopefully interesting surprises. Tonight, it came in the form of banter between Emilie and her father. Whether it was some musical trivia (Peggy Lee was the first female singer-songwriter) or some anecdote about their life, it felt like sitting in on a family night. The Mover also opened and closed the night with two songs not on the tribute album: If I Should Lose You (dad) and When A Woman Loves A Man (daughter). The evening also made clear the musical influences that surface in Emilie's own songs.