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.
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