Description
Label Review.
2017 album.
Our Overview.
Internationally acclaimed jazz vocalist and twice winner of BBC Jazz Awards best vocalist Ian Shaw, releases his new album ‘Shine Sister Shine’, his second for the Jazz Village label following the huge success of ‘The Theory Of Joy’ (2016 - for which Ian has been nominated for Male Jazz Vocalist Of The Year in the prestigious US Downbeat 82nd Annual Readers’ Poll). It is rare enough to find a master of the vocal art and a fine pianist to boot, which Ian is internationally recognised as, let alone a man with these talents and powerful political and ethical beliefs and the strength of character to put these into practice. Some might say that art and politics don't mix; well Ian Shaw is the man to prove you wrong. ‘Shine Sister Shine’ exemplifies these qualities: a great band recording great music with a powerful political message - music, in fact, for our time.
‘Shine Sister Shine’, singer Ian Shaw’s brand new studio album, is a celebration of the actions and art of extraordinary women. Moved by recent world events - the election of a cartoon president whose life is more suited to the high-end romps of a glossy pin-up mag hero - and the subsequent rallying of millions of women, Shaw has penned new songs reflecting two years’ working alongside refugees ('Keep Walking' is a hymn to the resilience of an Eritrean mother, whose life was shredded by civil war and a world that looks the other way. ‘Carry On World’ stars Shaw’s sisters - all five million of them).
Shaw is known as one of the jazz world’s supreme interpreters of the popular song form - here showcasing dazzling new arrangements of works by Peggy Lee, Phoebe Snow, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, as well as friends and collaborators closer to home - Sarah Jane Morris, the genre-defying Gwyneth Herbert, Judith Owen, Julie Matthews - and a stunning co-write with UK pop legend, Tanita Tikaram, on the title track.
The acclaimed contemporary novelist Stella Duffy says of Shaw’s new album: “This is an album crammed with sharp pain, deeply felt, then countered with soaring, resonant hope. Empire States Of Mind for all. We see what hurts, we cry the tears, and because we know there is also life, also light, we dig deep and find the strength to make a change. Where to start? Start anywhere, start here. Start now.”