Welcome

Interview in Jazz UK, March 2012

During a recent Radio 3 Jazz Library broadcast Ian Shaw, discussing the free-flowing beat poetry aspect of Mark Murphy's work, made the observation that the only jazz singer in England who told a story in similar fashion was the 'absurdly undervalued' Carol Grimes.

Strange, because whenever I have seen her at North London's Lauderdale House, where I have been organising gigs for twelve years, or the Vortex, the rooms have been packed. So too was Ronnie Scott's on he Oscar Brown night, at the Club's first BritJazz Festival in 2010 and more recently when she presented her Songs of London programme.

In 2009 she was an enormous success on BBC Tv's Soul Britannia package alongside Madeline Bell, Linda Lewis and Hamish Stuart.

Her website is peppered with enthusiastic postings sparked by a track from his mid-70s album Carol Grimes, with iconic cover of Carol with her young son. The set was recorded in Memphis with the Memphis Horns, including a young Michael Brecker and powered by the legendary electric bass player Duck Dunn.

Carol's back story is incredibly rich, as I discovered when we met. As she put it, 'At bottom I have always been a blue performer and made my way from that towards jazz, while taking in material by Tom Waits, Sandy Denny, Ewan MacColl - oh, loads of people! - as well as writing my own stuff.

She has been 'street' since long before the hip-hop generation imagine they discovered where it was...

To reach the full interview, please click here.