If pressed, Christine Tobin would probably call herself a jazz singer. She improvises, she sporadically swings (though in an oblique and private manner, as if fascinated by an inner groove only partially apparent to listeners), and she applies an intelligent, contemporary jazz sensibility to a highly personal choice of songs.
Tobin, however, grew up in Ireland exposed to folk music as much as jazz. This is apparent in her concern for storytelling in lyrics, the sometimes wistful reveries in her music, and a manner of inflection that is a very long way from 52nd Street. Her latest project, Romance and Revolution, is built from new pieces, reworked originals and reinterpretations of some of her favourite songs by, for instance, Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. The Berlin jazz festival's Eric Mandel has said of her: "What Björk did to dance music, Christine Tobin could do to jazz - for the music's benefit."
She appeared at the Jazz Cafe with one of the best bands she has worked with so far: the gifted Gary Husband on piano, plus regular guitarist Phil Robson, Dave Whitford on bass and Perrier award-winner Chris Higginbottom on drums. Husband's presence reflects and enhances the unpredictable poetry of Tobin's music, and diverts its occasional tendency to drift.
Tobin can infuse the unlikeliest songs with jazz, and her repertoire here included Bob Dylan's All I Really Want To Do Is Baby Be Friends With You. It had a raw forthrightness rare in her music; rhythmically, though, it was a little unconvinced. She was sombrely powerful on a favourite original, Echoes (her probing, preoccupied inflections suggest Robert Wyatt, or Annette Peacock), joyous on Witchcraft, and fleetingly Diana Krall-like on You Go To My Head. Robson, hurtling across the chord changes, delivered a superb guitar break on Witchcraft, and Husband added lateral swing and melodic spark to everything he played.
House of Women, a regular feature with Tobin, still sounds like a very big message being squeezed into too small a bottle. In general, though, the show represented a leap forward, and the most apposite setting yet, for a singer who refuses to toe any contemporary music lines.
