A year ago, we created a wonderful evening for Elaine Delmar to sing a musical salute to the all time great singer Lena Horne.
Giving today’s voice to the music of the legendary Lena Horne it’s a most welcome return, in the EFG London Jazz Festival, to Crazy Coqs for Elaine.. She continues to be the most outstanding jazz singer- with the voice, looks and personality that have captivated world-wide audiences.
Lena Horne, with her velvet voice, became one of the greatest American singers of popular music. Her distinctive voice, with her ability to interpret the story of the songs, ensured her rise to the music business summit as an original creative artist.
Her beauty, eloquence, style and sophistication, on film and on stage, made her a role model for millions.
Elaine writes “Welcome to this, my second concert devoted exclusively to the music of Lena Horne. I shall concentrate on her early repertoire up to the 1960's and covering her successful Las Vegas years. The songs of that period including "From This Moment On," "Day In, Day Out,"
"Stormy Weather", "Honeysuckle Rose" "It's Alright With Me "and "If You Believe" are what mesmerised me as a teenage wannabe singer in the 50's”
Throughout the 1960s Horne recorded prolifically. An autobiographical one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, opened on Broadway, ran for over a year and then toured internationally. It brought her a raft of prizes, including a Tony award and two Grammys.
Lena shared stages with Count Basie, Tony Bennett, Billy Eckstine, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and many other legends of American music during her long and varied career.
Lena made her final concert appearances at New York's Carnegie Hall. In 1996 she won another Grammy for best vocal jazz performance on the album “An Evening With Lena Horne”.
Elaine Delmar is equally at home, whether entertaining a concert audience, or performing in the more intimate cabaret/small theatre settings and was awarded best vocalist in the 2013 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
Her American Song Book presentations sold out not only here at Crazy Coqs, but also at The Albert Hall, Ronnie Scott’s, London’s The Other Palace and The Pheasantry.
Here’s Elaine at the BBC Proms performing “Lover Man” . Just marvellous
Elaine is accompanied for this concert by the remarkable pianist Jami Safir, Simon Thorpeon bass and Pat Levett percussion.
“Elaine Delmar is one of the ageless, evergreen singing stars that we have... as beautiful and talented as ever... she’s marvellous!” Sir Michael Parkinson
This Elaine Delmar concert of the music of Lena Horne captures all the emotion and sheer pleasure of the most wonderful songs by a wonderful artist, from another wonderful artist.
