This week I had the pleasure of e-meeting the members of Idle Words, Tom Medhurst and Jenifer Wren, a wonderful jazz duo out of Berkshire, England. I was impressed with the music and also the groups lofty goals. I just have to pass this piece of prose right from Tom on.
“Our mission is to continue music where it left off in the 1940s and to introduce new Jazz standards to be remembered for centuries to come!
Our sound is a mixture of traditional 1920/30/40s Jazz, Gypsy Jazz, Swing, Folk, Blues, and Modern Jazz.
We believe our music would be enjoyed by fans of: Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, The Spirits of Rhythm (my personal favourite!), Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, Madeline Payroux, and Julie London.”
Now those are lofty goals but you know what, I believe they have a shot at it. Strong words but you know I don’t think I can defend them as well as this duo speaks for themselves.
Let’s start with an Idle Words performance of the jazz classic “All of Me” written by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons in 1931 and recorded since by such greats as Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Mildred Bailey, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Frankie Laine, Della Reese, Johnnie Ray, Django Reinhardt, Willie Nelson and Michael Bublé.
Right, remember Tom and Jenifer’s words “to continue music where it left off in the 1940s”. I think they pretty much nailed that one don’t you? So the second part of that was “and to introduce new Jazz standards to be remembered for centuries to come”. That’s a little tougher but here is a 2 year old video of Idle Words:
That song, “Watermelon Happy”, is on Idle Words’ first album entitled “Songs for Summertime”. It’s a fine performance and a great piece of music writing in my opinion. Songs of Summertime is all original material and with that as a starting point I think this is a group you’ll hear a lot more from.
Well one more thing, for a limited time I’m sure, Idle Words is offering a free MP3 song download if you sign up for their mailing list on their website at http://gallery.idle-words.co.uk. So please go and sign up and check out all of their tunes. Pick up a CD, I’m sure that would make them happy. Let them know TheWorldofJazz.com sent you. Idle Words can be found on the internet via the following links.
Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/idlewordsjazz
Twitter at http://twitter.com/idlewords
Internet site http://www.idlewords.co.uk/