[Dixielandjazz] Nikki Yanofsky reviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

Nikki Yanofsky (Jazz Club Soho, London)
by John Fordham
London Guardian, September 12, 2010

On the testimony of witnesses to her performances at home in Canada three years ago,
the now 16-year-old Ella Fitzgerald-devotee Nikki Yanofsky was as good back then
as she is today. Vivacious, totally comfortable on stage, and as energetically engaged
with the music as if she were dancing at her own party, the likable Yanofsky has
stardom written all over her.
Yanofsky rips through Ella Fitzgerald improvisations dating back 60 years not only
note for note but inflection for inflection, with every once-spontaneous detail nailed
as if she had been studying for an exam. The issue for her future will be whether
she lets the industry smooth her off into just another jazz-inflected pop star, or
she puts all that formidable musicality to more personal use.
Local jazzers lined the walls for Yanofsky's London debut with a slick quartet. Lullaby
of Birdland emerged in bold melodic swerves, Take the A Train with soulful long notes,
and Ella Fitzgerald's Mr Paganini at warp-speed. She sounded as if she hadn't altogether
plumbed the lyrics of Don Henley's Heart of the Matter, but flew through Old Macdonald
Had a Farm ("the first song I learned") like a bop sax player, and brought a distinctively
yearning, modern-R&B edge to a soulful encore on Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
What's the point of it all? I haven't a clue. But the gap between the gifted Yanofsky
being able to sing anything she can learn, and singing anything she can think or
feel about the world doesn't seem all that big in her case. It won't matter to the
industry if she makes that step, but in the long run it will certainly matter to
her.


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
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