Daryl Sherman, Dirty Martini at Le Monde, Friday July 20th 
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Unless you’re going to a gig in a concert hall, there aren’t really very many opportunities to get dressed up for an evening of jazz these days – which made Daryl Sherman’s opening night show at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival on Friday all the more special. The sassy and classy New York-based singer, pianist and raconteur made her jazz festival debut in a new venue for the festival, the Dirty Martini, which is upstairs at the boutique hotel Le Monde. And what a wonderfully atmospheric and upmarket jazz-friendly venue it proved to be; perfect for a performer whose longest-running gig was at Manhattan’s Waldorf Astoria hotel.
The piano she played there wasn’t electric (as Friday night’s was); it belonged to a certain Cole Porter – so it was little surprise that his songs made up a significant part of the programme. Among the many Porter gems she played and sang – as she swivelled around on her stool to draw in every section of the decadently decorated room – were the uptempo It’s Too Darn Hot and the bluesy Where Have You Been? Both of these were jaw-dropping masterclasses in simultaneously executing a complicated arrangement on the piano while singing the vocal line. I Concentrate On You, on the other hand, was a piano-less duet with bassist Roy Percy.
Other treats included “the quintessential song about the battle of the sexes” – the Rodgers and Hart number Everything I’ve Got (Belongs to You), which highlighted the fact that Sherman is a vocalist who makes you understand lyrics in a way you might not have done before.
First published in The Herald, Monday July 23rd
I
In a Mellow Tone
Getting To Know You
You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To
Get Out of Town
Night and Day
It’s Too Darn Hot
So In Love With You
Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me
I Thought About You
I’m Shadowing You
Jeepers Creepers
Why Did I Choose You?
Chase Me Charlie
II
The Song Is You
I’m Beginning to See the Light
I Concentrate On You
Where Have You Been?
Everything I’ve Got Belongs To You
You Go To My Head
Everything But You
Swingtime in Honolulu
Love Me Or Leave Me
Lullaby of Birdland
Flying Down to Rio
When Lights Are Low
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