Top jazz lady in town

One of the big names from the world of jazz was in Marlow last Saturday night. The highly acclaimed New York pianist Lenore Raphael made her third appearance at Christ Church URC in Oxford Road, and delighted a sizeable audience with her performance on the excellent Bechstein grand piano. Lenore plays very much in the style of the late Oscar Peterson and in fact was coached by the legendary jazzman, and also had the honour of being the featured pianist at his memorial service in 2006. Receiving sympathetic support from her New York drummer Peter Ingram and award winning British bass player Paul Morgan, Lenore played dazzling versions of many popular jazz standards, including “Just Friends”, “Georgia” and “Tenderly”, plus a fast version of Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation”. She also intriguingly demonstrated how “Like Someone In Love” might have sounded had J.S. Bach composed it. She ended a highly entertaining evening with her own composition “Blues For O.P”, O.P. of course being Oscar Peterson. After a night at Marlow’s Crowne Plaza Hotel the party left for dates in Tel-Aviv and Israel. The concert was a joint presentation between Christ Church and the Marlow Jazz Club. Permission was granted for a recording to be made, and a couple of tunes were featured in last Sunday’s Marlow FM jazz show “Swing That Music” with two more to follow this coming Sunday evening.