Liane Carroll review: A triumph of style and substance

The Right to Love
    
Artist: Liane Carroll
Genre: Jazz
Label: Quiet Money

English vocalist Liane Carroll can inhabit a song so convincingly, even the most familiar standards take on new dimensions and unexpected meanings. The Hastings-born singer's 10th album – her fourth with trumpeter and arranger James McMillan at the controls – is a paean to love (or the lack of it), classic standards like Skylark and Georgia on my Mind, along with only slightly lesser known gems from Jacques Brel, Tom Waits and Stevie Wonder, drawn together like the plot of some post-romantic movie. McMillan's deft, uncliched arrangements provide soulful settings for a unique voice in UK jazz, a lithe, joyous, fearless one that can strike that elusive balance between style and substance.

Cormac Larkin

Cormac Larkin

Cormac Larkin, a contributor to The Irish Times, is a musician, writer and director