Look out for local jazz hostess with the modest….
Liverpool ’s lounge-bar regulars know all about Toni James, the up-and-coming jazz songstress who performs as a duo with Pete Watson and in five and seven pieces across the cities top venues.
She plays The Place, Hope Street Hotel and Blundell Street and The Toni James Band is now resident at the Tea Factory. She has also appeared alongside Courtney Pine and often serenades Liverpool ’s high society at private parties.
Her official website describes her sound as “a fusion of Portishead and Morcheeba, with genres of chillout, lounge and jazz”. She takes pop classics like Kylies Cant Get You Out Of My Head and Cry Me A River by Justin Timberlake, and reinvents them in her own jazzed up style.
“I try to bring a new edge to an old sound,” she says. “One of my favourites is Hard Days Night with a jazz swing. I’ve made this song my own that I have trouble remembering the original. Also, I’ve always written poetry about the keys times in my life that I feel passionate about, and these poems lend themselves well to a song.”
Just recently Toni and Pete have been writing and producing their latest album un:covered, which features original material with “echoes of acid jazz and trip hop”. And she also met her idol Eryka Badu. “The advice and inspiration she gave me has kept me strong and focused on my dreams, she’s amazing.”
And her fantasy future? “ A record deal and a duet with somebody like Alicia Keys or Chaka Khan. I wouldn’t say no to Justin Timberlake either!” |
