Annette Gregory

Ella Fitzgerald was born on 25 April 1917. She didn't have the easiest of starts to life - losing both parents and making a living on the streets as a teenager. She had hopes of becoming a dancer but had no training. What she did have was the gift of the smoothest, silkiest voice Jazz has known with the most delicate of touches - to hear Ella was to be kissed on the cheek by the lightest of breezes.
Over her career she recorded 2,000 songs many of which are now Jazz standards - a fact in part due to the Fitzgerald imprimatur.
Annette Gregory has a voice that is naturally lower in pitch than Ella’s and wisely she does not attempt a tribute act that imitates - rather her performance is a celebration of Ella’s legacy and the songs that will be sung and heard for as long as humans live on this planet.
For this gig she was to have been accompanied by a quartet but unfortunately the bassist and sax player were caught up in a traffic standstill on the M6, but the piano (John) and drums (Matt) backing meant the stripped down support ensured that we focused on the songs.
Just as Annette does not try to sound like Ella, neither does she slavishly follow her interpretations. This was strikingly apparent in songs such as “Miss Otis Regrets” and “The Man I Love” (which was more of a rocking blues than the familiar ballad).
Annette's delivery is characterised by controlled, fluent and delicate phrasing and a pair of ballads - “When a Woman Loves a Man” and “Embraceable You” - were particularly pleasing.
Let's hope that Annette and the full quartet make it back to Buxton soon! - Keith Savage

The mix of vocal and instrumental jazz worked perfectly in a well balanced and well chosen programme An unexpected Festival highlight.

The performance was more wide ranging than Gregory’s Ella or Cool Jazz shows and included a number of instrumental pieces, but more on those later. The ensemble commenced with a concise version of “All The Things You Are” that demonstrated Gregory’s jazz credentials, her voice exhibiting a rich, deep soulfulness and a genuine talent for jazz phrasing. Newitt was also featured as a soloist, his warm rounded tone reminiscent of such old masters as Lester Young and Ben Webster.....

The song “Poor Little Rich Girl” features in Gregory’s “Cool Jazz” tour in an arrangement inspired by the version by Chris Connor. Gregory’s take on the song was surprisingly lively with the singer confidently delivering the hipster lyrics and with Newitt once more the featured instrumental soloist......

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I enjoyed this show which proved to be an unexpected Festival highlight. The mix of vocal and instrumental jazz worked perfectly for me in a well balanced and well chosen programme. Gregory impressed with both her technical ability and her warm, generous personality. My thanks to her for speaking with my wife and I after the show. I note from her website that her Ella Fitzgerald show is visiting the Herefordshire village of Eye near my home town of Leominster on 30th September 2017, presumably part of the Arts Alive series of events, so I will try to catch her again then..... - The Jazz Mann