Rumer – Live @ Cheltenham Jazz Festival
aaamusic | On 15, May 2015
Sunday 3rd May, Cheltenham
Soulful British singer songwriter Rumer is well known for a voice that’s reminiscent of Karen Carpenter and also the influence of Burt Bacharach. She’s had two Brit Award nominations and performed at well known venues including The White House and Glastonbury Festival. Her well orchestrated debut album Seasons Of My Soul was hugely successful.
At this Big Top performance, her first at this festival, her versatile six-piece band was led by talented pianist and music director Rob Shirakbari on keyboard. The main focus was on her dreamy yet worldly third album Into Colour.
Rumer‘s ‘Dangerous’ was recently the most played record on Radio 2. It’s a sensitive love song inspired by a fear of returning to the music industry. A slower, more soothing and bitter-sweet ‘You Just Don’t Know People‘ followed, whilst elegant ‘Blackbird’ was about learning to move on from unwanted feelings. Drowsy ‘Baby, Come Back to Bed’ was sensuous and romantic and ‘Play Your Guitar’ was written to encourage musicians to be creative when terrible news reminds them how frightening the world has become.
Nostalgic ‘Pizza and Pinball’, with the lyrics “We need a change of scene. Let’s step inside a different dream”, took a childlike look at an American boy and hypnotic ‘Slow’, Rumer‘s debut single, was once heard a great deal on radio. Warm and breezy ‘Aretha’, inspired by the classic soul star Aretha Franklin, became BBC Radio 2’s Record Of The Week and a funky cover of Hall and Oates‘ ‘I Can’t Go For That’ was uplifting.
Some critics of Rumer say she lacks mystique and sounds flat, cosy and sentimental. Apparently she’s also ‘too smooth’, which Humphrey Bogart once responded to by asking his attacker if they’d like him to learn to stutter a little!
To her fans, Rumer is deliciously classy and gorgeously captivating. She sings silky, mellow songs that are fragile, reflective and infectious. Personally, I found this a crisp, open, and energetic performance that I was pleased I hadn’t missed.
