Christine Tobin ‘PELT’

CD Launch

Event Has Passed

Last Show: Sunday 27 th November 2016

PizzaExpress Jazz Club (Soho)

In 2012 Christine Tobin won a British Composer Award for her spellbinding settings of poems by WB Yeats, 'Sailing To Byzantium'. She was also awarded a PRS commission to write new music. 'Pelt', her settings of poems and lyrics by contemporary Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Paul Muldoon is the result of this commission and is due for release late Autumn 2016. Although a continuation of Tobin's alchemy with fine words and music and her exploration of the chemistry between the two, 'Pelt' marks a new direction and a new musical soundscape. Pelt is both daring and dreamlike, passionate and playful. Tobin leads her musicians across a kaleidoscopic panorama, sometimes as junkyard blues philosopher, or snappy beat seductress, sometimes as a conduit for exquisite zen-like harmonies, or reflective Americana. The result is a rich and engaging collection with Tobin's trademark originality.

Photo credits: Ian Anderson

"Christine Tobin really transcends glib genre-fixation. Her expressive range acknowledges finely acquired folk, jazz and 20th-century classical influences, which already sets her apart. And everything is shot through with an unmistakable refinement, free-spirited earthiness and giddy romanticism, this singer-songwriter is in a field of one.”

MOJO ****

Irish-born singer/songwriter Christine Tobin is now based in New York and spends her time between the NYC and London music scenes. She has ten highly acclaimed albums and 4 major awards under her belt. Her style, although rooted in jazz, is eclectic and draws on a broad range of influences from Ireland to West Africa to Brazil (Oumou Sangare, Elis Regina etc). Her sound is rich, authentic and deeply expressive and was described by the Guardian as “Tobin’s 24 carat voice” while praising her both for the poetry of her compositions and her golden voice. Much of her repertoire is self-penned and Tobin has received many accolades for her skills as a writer and arranger.  In 2012 she won a British Composers Award for her ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ album, her settings of W.B.Yeats poems and the following year 2013 she won a Herald Angel Award at Edinburgh Festival for her performance of ‘A Thousand Kisses Deep’, her imaginative versions of Leonard Cohen Classics.  In 2008 she won Best Vocalist at the BBC Jazz Awards and in 2014 she was awarded Jazz Vocalist of the Year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards. This summer, Christine has performed at Xerox Rochester, Edmonton and Vancouver International Jazz Festivals in the US and Canada as well as at The South Coast Jazz and Swaledale Festivals in the UK and the Body & Soul Festival in Ireland. She is making a name for herself on the NYC scene playing at venues  Kitano, Symphony Space, Club Bonafide, ShapeShifter Lab, Irish Arts Centre and cutting edge Brooklyn arts venue National Sawdust.

 

Band Lineup

Christine Tobin (vocals/composition)
Richard Jones (violin)
Kate Shortt (cello)
Gareth Lockrane (flutes)
Phil Robson (guitar)
Liam Noble (piano)
Dave Whitford (double bass)
Simon Lea (drums)