Liane Carroll is a Hastings Legend. Anyone even marginally interested in the local music scene will know that she plays at Porters in the High Street almost every Wednesday. They may also know that she has for many years been known nationally on the jazz circuit. I first saw her at the 606 Club in Chelsea (the one where you used to go downstairs and announce yourself through a slot in the door, like an old-fashioned speakeasy) when she easily and expertly presented a riveting vocal programme. 

You may not know that, born into a local musical family, she began composing at the age of eight and has been a professional singer, pianist, and composer from the age of fifteen. She has worked with Dave Holdsworth, Gerry Rafferty, Long John Baldry, Paul MacCartney, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Trevor Watts (also local), and many others. 

At Jazz Hastings she played electric piano, accompanied by her husband of 35 years, Roger Carey, on bass. Carey’s style is unflashy but unflagging, with excellent fascinating rhythm solo breaks. On drums was (also local) Russell Field, who among other assets lists playing drums with Midge Ure for 23 years. He has also gigged with Liane for a long time, and the three of them together are a powerful act. 

ALMOST LIKE BEING IN LOVE

Many jazz bands are fluid, with personnel entering and leaving depending on time and availability. It’s one way of keeping a band available and the output fresh. But a band as solid as this, honed through years of practice, is somehow able to make every number look spontaneous, as if they’d just thought of it. No music stands or other paraphernalia come between them and the audience. Carroll is a clear leader with a voice undiminished by years of production, and a vast internalised repertoire that spans blues to jazz standards through soul and country-and-western. Her spoken introductions to the numbers always give deferential credit to the composer, they aren’t too long, and are often naturally funny. 

Carroll has produced five-star rated albums and won jazz prizes. It’s a mystery to me that she doesn’t have huge international recognition: someone who has been known to riff on the fast introduction to The Big Country just as part of a conversation, then produce, without pause, a faultless version of the Simone classic Feeling Good, deserves considerable praise. 

That was at Porters one Fat Tuesday; this Jazz Hastings gig was mostly lovely Broadway standards. Memphis in June (Hoagy Carmichael, 1945, but immortalised by Nina Simone) with Carroll’s scat-singing interpolated, sounded neither laboured nor pretentious, just personal. Indeed, Carroll has the unusual ability to make a song her own while paying full tribute to the original; to make Almost Like Being In Love and Fever sound like the first time anyone ever sang them. I loved it all, and so did the rest of the audience. 

The Liane Carroll Trio played at Jazz Hastings at EHSAA, the Stade, on 7 October. She can usually be seen at Porters wine bar and restaurant on High Street on a Wednesday evening at 9.30. Jazz Hastings occurs at EHSAA, the Stade, on the first Tuesday of every month. The next gig is 4 November, the Pete Roth Trio featuring the legendary Bill Bruford (!) on drums.