BDV 2454

1. Beautiful mp3
2. You’ve Got a Friend mp3
3. It’s Too Late mp3
4. Home Again mp3
5. So Far Away mp3
6. I Feel The Earth Move mp3
7. Way Over Yonder mp3
8. WillYou Still Love Me Tomorrow mp3
9. Smackwater Jack mp3
10. (You Make Me Feel Like)
A Natural Woman mp3
11. Tapestry mp3
12. Closing Time mp3

Christine Tobin - voice, Liam Noble - piano.

‘Tapestry Unravelled’ is a beautiful and elegant re-working of songs from Carole King's beloved classic 1971 album Tapestry plus one original from the BBC Jazz Awards Best Vocalist Christine Tobin and the highly acclaimed UK jazz pianist Liam Noble.

Tapestry Unravelled is their brand new album due for release early Summer 2010

Christine Tobin & Liam noble,
The Lot, Edinburgh ****
Rob Adams (Published on 15 Feb 2010)

How do you interpret an album as well known to so many people as Carole King’s multi-million selling Tapestry?

There’s the deconstruct/reconstruct method that would turn out songs bearing a passing resemblance to King’s blueprint. Or in these days of X-Factor karaoke, especially with a soul classic like (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman onboard, hiding the tune in a fog of melisma might win votes.

For Christine Tobin, the answer was simpler: just sing the songs as intended and with a vocal timbre as naturally winsome and singular as hers, the result is something at once familiar and captivatingly fresh. Tobin didn’t go into detail about the reasoning behind her forthcoming Tapestry Unravelled CD; the original is an album with close ties to her sister Deirdre, who died last year. But her connection with songs such as the eternally optimistic Beautiful and the more vulnerable Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow was obvious, and with Liam Noble’s piano accompaniments subtly emphasising the gospel flavour in much of King’s writing, the overall mood was decidedly intimate and personal. Being a jazz singer, Tobin likes to scat, which she did creatively and convincingly, and Noble’s powers of invention included more oblique references, particularly in his solo piano arrangement of Smack-water Jack.

Neither musician’s extemporisations strayed far from the songs’ essence, and even the supporting material, including two beautifully expressed original songs and a vibrant medley comprising Milton Nascimento’s Ponta de Areia and Steve Swallow’s She Was Young, sounded as if guided by the same impetus that caused Tobin to sing A Natural Woman with such soulful dignity.

 

“Christine Tobin's great strength as an interpreter of others' material lies in her ability to identify precisely what makes a good song tick and then unselfishly to devote all her considerable vocal gift to presenting it, polished, to an audience, without unnecessary frills or fuss, but in a manner that burnishes the song to a satisfyingly rich glow.”
Chris Parker, live review of Vortex gig

“It works because Tobin and Noble create a different vibe, a different world maybe, for each and every one of Carole King's songs. This happens in the first split-second of every song.”
Seb Scotney, LondonJazz blogspot