It was a little bit of a tough choice for me last
Saturday, go to Barber Shop for the Jam honoring Atwell Jansen or to Sultan to
go see Lily Anna Nuris.
My friend from Holland was visiting and he likes to
keep things simple, so for dinner we drove up to Jalan Sultan and ordered
murtabak and maggi goreng see food at the restaurant next door to Sultan Hotel.
For us westerners rinsing down spicy food with teh o halia simply does not
work, so we were more than happy to finally sit down behind a pint of nice cold
beer, as soon as we found our seats at Sultan.
The title of this blog, I hope, is not too
confusing. Lily and the band were featuring Billy Holiday and therefore mostly
Jazz. My title refers to one of Billy Holiday’s successful albums and is also
the name of the movie about her life.
It disappointed me a bit to see the Sultan Jazz club
not completely full. Knowing some of the repertoire of Billy Holiday, I was
thinking there would be potential for some real good music. Lily would be
backed up by:
Mario Serio on Piano
Tony Makarome on bass
and Louis Soliano on drums
a mafia like line up of Italian names, but more so an impressive collection of very seasoned local musicians.
Mario Serio on Piano
Tony Makarome on bass
and Louis Soliano on drums
a mafia like line up of Italian names, but more so an impressive collection of very seasoned local musicians.
Lily was dressed the role of jazz diva: A black
dress, hair fascinator and make up all matching the style of the Billy
Holiday’s era.
After the first notes of the first song I knew I was not going to be disappointed. The band did a lovely job presenting these songs that have Billy Holiday’s signature. The arrangements, I suspect largely by Mario, were smooth, and Lily vocalized the feeling of the song in a magnificent way I believe.
After the first notes of the first song I knew I was not going to be disappointed. The band did a lovely job presenting these songs that have Billy Holiday’s signature. The arrangements, I suspect largely by Mario, were smooth, and Lily vocalized the feeling of the song in a magnificent way I believe.
As suspected the melodies and solos by Mario, Tony
and Louis were fantastic.
I think Louis is one of the most entertaining drummers in town, always ready for a little bit of show, with a little bit of a twirl or a behind the back move. So also a nice challenge to try to catch that on camera for me as well.
In the mean time Lily was pulling out her full register. My friend, who had never seen Lily sing before, was at times blown away by her volume.
I think Louis is one of the most entertaining drummers in town, always ready for a little bit of show, with a little bit of a twirl or a behind the back move. So also a nice challenge to try to catch that on camera for me as well.
In the mean time Lily was pulling out her full register. My friend, who had never seen Lily sing before, was at times blown away by her volume.
Having heard Lily sing rock music, I knew she could belt it out, but I was this time very impressed with the more sensitive notes. This observation provided a nice build up to the bands rendition of strange fruit, a song with an ice cold story and such chilling lyrics, that I think it requires a lot of soul and blues to be able perform that well… and they did.
Lily did. In my opinion, she did it fantastically, staring into the room with cold black eyes, she gave me goose bumps from the first to the last note, drawing some to stand up for an ovation.
Coincidently today, I saw a Facebook posting from
Lily, that said:
“I
can only offer the emotion of the songs I sing. In much hopes to touch your
hearts. To give you the rendition of my feelings about them. It is more than
just singing, I want to perform"
And she did:
With
elegance
With
style
With
humor
With
Attitude
Major Attitude
The evening ended with a beautiful "all of me". Well all of Lily is for me not a consideration, but I definitely would want some more!
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