Judith Owen – Comes Alive – Jazz Club Etoile 06/6&8/24

Judith Owen’s new album, her thirteenth and first live release, was recorded in Bern, Switzerland, during a week-long residency at the famous célèbre Marian’s Jazzroom.

Having listened to Judith Owen‘s previous albums and selected Come on & Get it, released in October 2022 and expanded to a Deluxe edition in 2023, on Couleurs Jazz Radio, and then having had the chance to hear her and her Gentlemen Callers live recently at the New Morning on rue des Petites Écuries in Paris, listening to this new opus is a new delight, a renewed enthusiasm.

Judith Owen has the ability and talent – and live performance is even more effective – to transmit a positive, infectious energy from the very first bars and verses. The Gentlemen Callers she accompanies are in perfect synergy, delivering top-notch jazz swing. Far from being mere accompanists, they form a band of solid individuals, all capable of delivering solos of the highest quality.

David Torkanowsky on piano, has a gift for swing and blue notes. He is supported by two immovable towers: Lex Warshawsky on bass and Jamison Ross on drums. Between them, they provide a comfortable and secure springboard for the colorful choruses of Dave Blenkhorn on guitar, Kevin Louis on cornet and Ricardo Pascal on tenor saxophone.

Judith Owen and her fellow musicians are all resolute performers!

Welshwoman Judith Owen is one of the great voices of jazz today.

The very good news is that they’ll be back on stage at the Jazz Club Etoile, Paris on Thursday June 6, and again on Saturday 8 with the same “Gentlemen Callers”, but this time augmented by 11 of the best Big Band musicians on the Paris scene. The group formed for the occasion is called the Orleans – Paris All Star Big Band.

Two dates not to be missed.

Another date with the Gentlemen Callers is scheduled for July 6 as part of the Jazz in Fort L’Ecluse Festival in Léaz, Ain, France.

The adjectives that are usually used to describe Judith Owen: bold, sexy, fearless, energetic and funny. I would add conscious and committed. Because, in addition to the festive side of the songs she performs on these last two albums, they are covers of songs by pioneering women who are long forgotten these days: Julia Lee, Blossom Dearie and Nellie Lutcher… Judith discovered them on the shelves of her childhood home and listened to them at her parents’, these “badass” Ladies often overlooked in the Jazz and Blues of the 40s and 50s.

Comes Alive features some of the songs from Come On & Get It in an even stronger live version, followed by new tracks including “Lady Be Good“, “Teach Me Tonight“, “Down With Love“, “Skylark” and “Fever“, to name just a few of the previously unreleased titles.

Judith Owen is captivated by these unabashed “Unapologetic” singers of the 40s and 50s, who sang about sex – and preferred it that way in a time when women were expected to sing about romance and mushy songs.

The singer has made it her mission to dig deeper and find out more. A perspective both musical and historical. The result is a joyful, inspiring and stimulating project, for a fresh, new look, brought up to date in an age when breaking the glass ceiling in stiletto heels and being proud of it isn’t so common.

I invite you, the inspired readers, to listen to the weekly podcat “Unapologetically Judith Owen“, to which we offer you access here.

« It wasn’t enough to sing these incredible women’s songs,” explains Judith Owen. “I also had to talk about them. To talk and tell everyone how these extraordinary women have changed my life – and how they could change yours too!»

Couleurs Jazz commits you to listen to this clearly joyful and committed voice!!