Geoff: 0:00

Hello, podcats. Geoff Gascoyne here. Hope you're well? Today I'm on my way to Bedford to have a lovely chat with Miss Jacqui Dankworth, MBE. We collaborated on an album 10 years ago or so. She is the daughter of Cleo Laine and Johnny Dankworth. Talk about that a bit. A little bit about other stuff. And whatever comes up. So here we go.

Announcement: 0:44

The Quartet Jazz Standards podcast is brought to you by the Quartet app for iOS, taking your jazz play along to another level.

Geoff: 0:54

So how are you today? Are you good?

Jacqui: 0:55

Yeah, I'm not bad. I mean it's been a sort of whirlwind over time, so, you know.

Geoff: 1:01

How long ago was it that we lost your mum?

Jacqui: 1:03

Uh July.

Geoff: 1:05

And then we had the um beautiful tribute.

Jacqui: 1:07

Oh, thank you. Memorial, yeah. Well, Alec and I got that together. I was working in Northern Ireland actually, doing a production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. I was out there for seven weeks, and as soon as I got back, I had about two and a half, three weeks to get it together with Alec and my brother to organise this memorial.

Geoff: 1:24

What you did at the memorial was incredible, that that uh Sondheim you sang with us.

Jacqui: 1:27

Oh, thank you. Well, I sang that in um the original production of Into the Woods at the Phoenix Theatre back in 1990 something, or and I played Cinderella, so I sang No One Is Alone in that. And that's why I sang at the memorial. Because Mum and I used to sing it every Christmas and we recorded it. Mother cannot guide you, now you're on your own, only be me beside you, still you're not alone. And that that's the opening lyric. So it sort of felt right the right choice.

Geoff: 1:54

That's why it was so emotional at the end last week.

Jacqui: 1:56

Yeah, and of course, in the show the baker's lost his wife and Jack's lost his mother, and Cinderella sings it to Jack, you know, who's lost his mother. When it was first conceived, it was about sort of saying to someone you're not alone, but also with a mind to knowing that they're still around you, you know, whoever's gone is still around you.

Geoff: 2:15

So I mean a huge presence, your parents, right? Was it inevitable that you were gonna go into show business, or was there any other choices?

Jacqui: 2:22

Oh, I don't know. Um, I went to boarding school when I was very young, eight. We had a wonderful drama teacher there, and the music was good, but the drama teacher was very inspiring. So I got into drama and music, so I studied flute, grade eight flute, and got distinction. And I got into drama and singing and St. Christopher's School, where I went in Hertfordshire. Um, my brother is a brilliant musician, as you know, and because he was older than me, he used to say, You can't sing, you know, oh, you're singing out of tune, or something like that. So my mum's thought we must separate us because and actually it was the best thing she did. And as much as I missed my brother, I got to St. Chris and they all said, Oh, you can sing, and so I used to get the leads in all the musicals, and Mr. Tut used to give me, you know, lead parts in these really difficult musicals that he wrote. And Mum and Dad came to one of these musicals, and they thought, How's she doing that? You know, how am I doing? And I I was able to sing it, and I I gained confidence from going there, really. So that ignited my interest in music and drama, and then the drama teacher took us to a production, a musical version of The Comedy of Errors at Stratford East, uh, with starring Judy Dench. And I remember being at the back of the theatre at Stratford East thinking, that's what I want to do. You know, that's what and I could feel myself, it's like wings, and I just felt my my spirit fly down that huge theatre and be with them. That's what I knew I wanted to do. So I knew I wanted to sing and act, and you know, the singing sort of took the foreground, and now I'm doing try I've got an agent again now, so I'm doing acting and singing. So I knew that that's what I wanted to do, and I was only nine or ten.

Geoff: 4:06

Amazing. Yeah, God, what a moment.

Jacqui: 4:09

It was a moment. Yeah, thank you for recognizing that. It was really quite formative, and that's why Judy Dench now, I mean, there've been a couple of times when I've been in the same room as her, a do that Mum was having, and she was there, and I can't speak to her, I can't, I'm just totally turned to jelly because she was such a huge influence on my my very young life, you know.

Geoff: 4:28

Right, right. She of course she sent a message, didn't she? Yeah at the memorial.

Jacqui: 4:33

She sent a lovely message to Mum, and it was very short, but just absolutely spot on.

Geoff: 4:38

So, how did your parents take it when you announced that you were going to go into show business?

Jacqui: 4:42

Oh, really, darling, you know, as long as it makes you happy, we don't mind, whatever you want, that sort of thing.

Geoff: 4:47

Right.

Jacqui: 4:48

But I did say that I wanted to be an opera singer at one time, and that made my Mum go a bit pale. Um, but I don't have a voice, operatic voice, but I've got into opera, you know, in my early twenties um listening to it, and I thought, I wonder if I could do that, but I haven't. I think you're kind of either born with that or you're not.

Geoff: 5:09

And you found yourself at the Guild hall School of Music, didn't you?

Jacqui: 5:12

Yeah, I well, I I did my A levels, I did music and drama. My A levels. What else were you gonna do? Oh god, I did well in them. I did English and I I've got did okay in English, but I did really well in music and drama. I didn't even tell my parents, I just said, Oh, by the way, I've got into the guild hall. Oh, really, darling, how lovely. You know, they were off doing the Hollywood book or whatever they were doing in America, big huge careers, and so I mean it was an odd, we it was a very it was a very love-filled family. We all loved each other and we knew we loved each other, but we lived sort of quite separate lives, you know. I was very independent, I just got on with my life, you know. I had boyfriends, I was into my acting, I got lots of work, I went to drama school. But the hardest times were when I was younger and I'd come home to an empty house. It's funny, you know, going into empty houses now has a sort of resonance for me. I I find that hard.

Geoff: 6:06

Going to boarding school when you're eight or ten or something like that. That's that's very young, isn't it?

Jacqui: 6:11

It was really because I see eight-year-olds now, and I think that's are you kidding? You know, was I really because I felt so grown up and I felt a strong sense of justice and right and wrong. But I can I do remember very strongly as a young girl, you know, eight, feeling very clear about who I was and what I wanted and what I wanted to do. And it was all around music and

Geoff: 6:31

Of course, yeah. So did your parents help you with anything musical? Did I mean in terms of learning the craft or learning learning anything about music?

Jacqui: 6:40

Well, not specifically, but of course, they were huge in America, so we'd go on the road with them. So, although I didn't have sort of lessons from Mum, I kind of did because I watched her, I heard her. Well, she would lock herself away to practice way before any concert. She was the most prepared person I ever know. And um

Geoff: 6:59

But that's what you're like though. You're you're you do the same.

Jacqui: 7:02

I do lock myself away, so I must have learned that from Mum. And also being an actor, having been an actor, is very disciplined like that, because you've got to turn up to rehearsals and you've got to at some point they're gonna say, Right, no books, you know, off your lines, you've got to you've got to buckle down. And you know, there's nothing like a deadline, which is great. Well, I need a deadline, otherwise I I can't I'm the same. I just drift.

Geoff: 7:25

It's about focusing your mind, isn't it?

Jacqui: 7:26

Maybe most things in life are

Geoff: 7:28

So you ended up at The Guild hall. So, how was the experience there? You were were you as an actor then?

Jacqui: 7:32

Yeah, as an actor. Right. I was involved in the show Merrily We Roll Along by Sondheim, and of course, the musicians at The Guild hall, they're the like the they're unbelievable, aren't they? These young musicians, all the brass players, the string players, and so you have that experience at The Guild hall as an actor, but doing a musical with you know. Am I allowed to swear? You know, top fan. And uh because a lot of my friends were at they went to different drama schools where it was just someone on a piano and they maybe if they were lucky at drum and bass, you know. But we had this 30 piece band, you know.

Geoff: 8:04

But by the end of it, you're ready to be professional, aren't you? You're ready to ready to do it properly. Yeah, but you must have, I mean, because of your background, it's in there, isn't it? You know, I see I see that with my kids, you know, how natural they are.

Jacqui: 8:16

Because they've been around you and too do you.

Geoff: 8:18

For example, you know, I I was listening to your the album we did together at the end of the day.

Jacqui: 8:21

Live to Love.

Geoff: 8:22

Live to love.

Jacqui: 8:22

It's a nice album, isn't it?

Geoff: 8:23

Which is a gorgeous album. I was listening to that on the way up here, and that was one of the ones I was mixing. This is this would be 10, where would you do that? 10 years ago, something like that. I was mixing that album at the time when I had a tiny little room, which was basically Lewis's room, and Lewis would have been 10 or something, he's just turned 21 now. So he rem I put something on and he remembers it.

Jacqui: 8:44

He can sing all the lines,

Geoff: 8:45

Yeah. He remembers all of it, it's amazing.

Jacqui: 8:48

Because children's minds are like sponges aren't the y?

Geoff: 8:50

Yeah, and you would be the same, surely, with your with your parents.

Jacqui: 8:52

Well, there was one instance where Mum was learning Pierre Lunet, which is a really hard, we call it squeaky gate music, 12-tone music. Wow. And Alec and I would sit and listen to her practice, and we could just sing the lines back because we had no concept of what difficult was. You know, as you get older, you think, Oh, I can't do that, I can't do that. But as kids, we were just like sponges, we just heard these sounds. And no feeling. Apparently, she used to bonk us over the home with the newspaper and say, How did you do that? You know, it took me three hours to let the phrase went. No, but not exaggerating, but I did have a problem. If I knew my Mum and Dad were in the house, I couldn't practice.

Geoff: 9:28

Yeah.

Jacqui: 9:29

Because I was so intimidated in a way because they were so brilliant, you know, I didn't want them to make to hear me sound bad. My dad actually used to say, if you're sounding good when you're practicing, then you're not practicing properly because what you really should be practicing is the stuff you sound bad at and practicing it and getting it good.

Geoff: 9:47

That's true, yeah. But and that stuff you don't want people to hear, do you? No, you don't. I mean, how do you feel if you're singing in front of other singers or if you're singing in front of the peers that you respect? Do you does that raise your game or does that does that how does that make you feel?

Jacqui: 10:00

Well, it depends on the energy of the other person, but usually it raises your game.

Geoff: 10:05

Yeah.

Jacqui: 10:05

The thing about being a singer is that you very rarely work with other singers. So it is quite odd. It's like you don't play with other bass players, do you? So if there were a bass player conference, would it make you nervous or, I kid?

Geoff: 10:19

I don't know. I think I'd probably like it, to be honest. I was sitting between two bass players at the memorial the other week.

Jacqui: 10:24

What Malcolm Creese?

Geoff: 10:25

Malcolm Creese and Dave Green.

Jacqui: 10:27

At the memorial, I didn't really see many people.

Geoff: 10:29

It's like your own party, you don't you don't enjoy your own party so much. But it was difficult for you because everyone wanted to speak to you, didn't they? You know?

Jacqui: 10:35

Yeah, I mean I spoke to some people and not others, you know, it was odd. Maureen Lippmann was there. I I think I just waved, you know, and blew a kiss or something. Yeah, so it was lots of people like that.

Geoff: 10:46

It's funny, it's it's it's like an end of an era, isn't it? Really, with with your mum, you know. It's yeah, hopefully you can get some space from it now and move on.

Jacqui: 10:55

It is an end of an era, and it was her it would have been her birthday on the 28th of October, uh, just a couple of days ago. And I think that that was hard, you know. The thing is that the lead up to the memorial, you know, we had a the funeral, which was crematorium, and then we had the memorial, which was more about her career and less about family and stuff. And now it's gone really quiet, and now's the time where you think your mum is part of you, you know, so you feel like you've lost a part of yourself. It's it is a big one, isn't it?

Geoff: 11:24

Yes, yeah. So, what about the future? What's what's happening at the moment?

Jacqui: 11:28

Well, I'm practicing this jazz voice thing, which is in two weeks' time, And then

Geoff: 11:32

Being very prepared, like your mother. Being very prepared.

Jacqui: 11:35

Well, I will for I there's only one song, there's one song that I've never sung before, so I'm gonna have to sit at the other end of the house, shut all the doors, and practice that. And it's a really fantastic arrangement of Dad's actually Ridin' High. And I thought I could probably carry that off, you know, because it's such a fun arrangement, and anyone could sing it, really. Well, the thing about Mum's singing is she made it sound so easy, and then you get to sing it as well.

Geoff: 12:01

You know what? You you do as well though. You do the same thing, you you know, when I hear you sing, it's the same, it sounds effortless. Yeah, you've inherited

Jacqui: 12:08

Thank you. I have good days and bad. I think was I was listening to some singing teacher online. Sometimes you scroll, and there's a singing teacher saying, No one's gonna judge you on your best singing, she said. She said, you have to make your average extraordinary because your muscles have to remember, you have to sort of raise the bar on your average singing because you don't know before a concert whether you're gonna have eaten too much curry, whether you've had a row with your partner, whether you just couldn't sleep. But I just thought that was really interesting. Yeah, that that's what practice is about, isn't it? So that when you get on stage, your body knows what's going on and it just falls into

Geoff: 12:50

It's like muscle memory, yeah, in some ways. I was I was listening to some some of your older stuff as well on the way up here, and some extraordinary things, your Windmills of Your Mind and uh London by Night stuff.

Jacqui: 13:01

Yeah, that's a lovely story. Well, there's a story there. Um, Carroll Coates wrote that.

Geoff: 13:06

Wrote the composition London by Night.

Jacqui: 13:07

London by Night, the lyrics and the music. When I was at The Guild hall, I was nuts about this close harmony group called The Singers Unlimited. They inspired Take Six. There was one album called The Four of Us, anyway, that I just listened to and listened to vinyl, and I sort of wore out the grooves on it. And I knew all the songs on that, and London by Night was on there. It was an arrangement by Gene Puerling of London by Night. Anyway, for years later, I was in my 30s, late 30s, maybe early 40s or something like that, and I just rang home to see how Mum and Dad were. And they used to have this kitchen where you know friends would come and sit round and chew the cud around the table and he said, Oh, you never guess who's popped in today. And I said, Oh, yeah, who? And he said, Well, you won't probably have heard of him, but his name's Carroll Coates. I said, Carroll Coates? I heard of him, I know he. So then I started singing, London by Night. Yeah, Is a wonderful sight.

Geoff: 13:59

Yeah, gorgeous.

Jacqui: 14:00

There is magic abroad, in the air. All that, and he said, and he handed the phone over to Carroll Coates while I was singing. He said, listen to this, and I sang the whole of London by Night to Carroll Coates down the phone. He couldn't believe that I knew it because he just thought, Oh, you know, yeah, I'm a youngster, she's not gonna make it. So that yeah, I was proud of that. I mean, it's not often that you can do that with someone who's written a song, but he he passed away last year, something or two years ago, and I always regret not having got in touch. Um, I I don't think he heard my version of London by Night either.

Geoff: 14:36

So I was also listening to our Live to Love album. It was such a lovely experience. I was so nervous because obviously you asked me to produce that record, and uh massive thing for me, you know, to do that. Was it? Yeah, it was amazing.

Jacqui: 14:46

I didn't know that.

Geoff: 14:47

Yeah, it was amazing. I was putting you through your paces and now you remember we did the Weather Report tune.

Jacqui: 14:52

Oh my god, Malala. We did Malala. We wrote a tune about Malala Yousafzai .

Geoff: 14:57

We did, yeah.

Jacqui: 14:57

Oh, it was hard. You did push me. We did um

Geoff: 15:00

Palladium.

Jacqui: 15:00

Palladium!

Geoff: 15:01

Yeah, yeah. And we did Tomorrow's World. We did um a vocal version of your dad's Tomorrow's World, which is which is I I really love that.

Jacqui: 15:09

I love that. Oh, it was I thought my idea for the lyric was quite good.

Geoff: 15:13

It's all about um

Jacqui: 15:14

Quantum physics.

Geoff: 15:15

That's right.

Jacqui: 15:16

I don't know anything about quantum physics, I just thought I'd but I've I read this book that Chris Allard, the guitarist, gave me called The Fabric of the Cosmos. And uh it's uh quantum physics explained to sort of dunces like me, you know. And it really affected me. I find it quite spiritual, quantum physics, you know.

Geoff: 15:43

So I asked you if you would like to sing a tune today.

Jacqui: 15:47

Right.

Geoff: 15:48

Um, and it's The Man I Love by Gershwin. So here it comes. So you're gonna have a a short introduction, and um let's see what happens. Oh, that's gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.

Jacqui: 17:53

I feel like I'm from Star Trek, you know.

Geoff: 17:58

The human theremin.

Jacqui: 18:02

What is it? I was listening today. Guy Parker played me something called Flying Saucer. Is it Milt Jackson, the vibraphonist? Yeah, yeah. He sings, and in the background there's trying to sound spooky as I think that's what I felt like too. Amazing. What are you gonna do?

Geoff: 18:20

I'm gonna ask you some questions now. Let's start off with your favourite album.

Jacqui: 18:25

I mean, obviously, my lovely husband Charlie's. I'm gonna put his on aside because he did an album called Southbound, which is one of my favourite albums in the whole world. But growing up before I met Charlie, I think it's got to be Inner visions by Stevie Wonder.

Geoff: 18:39

You love soul music then? You didn't you you you're quite open to different kinds of music.

Jacqui: 18:43

Oh god, yeah. I mean, I grew up obviously listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, Billy Holliday, Al Jarreau. Oh Al Jarreau. I can't believe he's gone. But Stevie Wonder somehow really got me through boarding school, I think. Right. And so I know all the songs on that on that album. I love the changes, I love his harmonies, I love his voice. He's just such a great singer, isn't he?

Geoff: 19:06

Yeah. So that would be the 70s, right? So you would be you were listening to that when it first came out, right?

Jacqui: 19:10

Yeah, all those Stevie Wonder songs. We were lucky, we would everyone be thinking, Oh, it's the new when's the new Stevie Wonder song uh album?

Geoff: 19:17

You have got quite diverse tastes now in music. Do you listen to lots of different kinds of music?

Jacqui: 19:20

I don't know if listeners know, but my dad started this thing called the Wavendon All music Plan, which is now The Stables. But the idea was that all music should be celebrated and not put on different shelves because he used to call it musical apartheid, you know.

Geoff: 19:35

And um you still feel that a little bit in the jazz community, don't you?

Jacqui: 19:38

You know what you mean that they don't embrace other kinds of music. Yes. It's like saying to someone, Well, you're only going to eat curry for the rest of your life.

Geoff: 19:46

I heard a good interview with Jerry Seinfeld the other day. Someone asked him, Why don't you live in Los Angeles? And he said, Well, why would I live in a place where it's sunny all the time when you can have the seasons? It's like living without colour. It's like that with music though, isn't it? It's you you you do have to have lots of different kinds of colours.

Jacqui: 20:03

I think so, and you you listen to music all the time, but you probably have to be in the right mood for various you have to sort of know what you want to hear. I think most people's record collections are they're pretty eclectic, aren't they? Yeah, yeah. Well I think that's wonderful. And my dad was ahead of his time in that sense because he was talking about crossover music before anyone was ever ready to accept it, really.

Geoff: 20:24

Um of course he did, you know, he scored films and he did lots of different kinds of things, didn't he?

Jacqui: 20:30

Yeah, yeah, he was open. He was open. I mean, I think the only music they weren't into is country music, but you know, I like Dolly Parton, so I do like some, I mean, I think she's a great songwriter.

Geoff: 20:41

It's just having an open mind.

Jacqui: 20:43

I think it's important to have an open mind because you're cutting yourself off from so many different sounds.

Geoff: 20:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, question two. Yeah. Is there a favourite musician, alive or dead, that you would like to play with?

Jacqui: 20:53

I mean, I used to have a thing about Kurt Elling, like you know, before he made it big, and he had a manager called Bill Trout, who was my manager for a few months. So I I kind of hope was hopeful then that I'd meet him, but then he moved to Mary Ann Topper, you know, big agent and some.

Geoff: 21:10

You'd like to sing duets with him or something?

Jacqui: 21:12

Yeah, I'd love to, one day.

Geoff: 21:13

Just to blend your voices together with something like that. That would be amazing.

Jacqui: 21:16

Yeah, yes. So I've always admired him.

Geoff: 21:19

He's got such a beautiful sound to his voice, doesn't he?

Jacqui: 21:22

Yeah. Well, it's unusual. It's it's a sort it's arresting, isn't it? You have to listen to it. It's very but I remember first seeing him. Where did I see him first at the Pizza at Dean Street, you know, before he was a big name.

Geoff: 21:34

Yeah.

Jacqui: 21:35

And I always thought he was incredible.

Geoff: 21:37

Um I remember where I was where I first heard that first record.

Jacqui: 21:41

Yeah, yeah. There's some great tunes on that.

Geoff: 21:43

It's funny that feeling, isn't it?

Jacqui: 21:45

Yeah. Remembering where you were.

Geoff: 21:46

Moments in our in our musical career when that happens, yeah. So that leads us nicely on to the next question, which is what is the highlight of your career?

Jacqui: 21:56

That's a hard one.

Geoff: 21:58

I know.

Jacqui: 21:58

Oh my gosh.

Geoff: 22:00

I remember what I remember. Sorry to interrupt, I remember one moment when we were doing, we were just about to record your your album together, and you sat in with Chick Corea. Do you remember?

Jacqui: 22:09

That was pretty high. Yeah, but I had a bloody cold. I had a flu, not just a cold. I mean, I wasn't making excuses.

Geoff: 22:17

You went on stage at The Festival Hall with Chick Corea.

Jacqui: 22:19

I shouldn't have done it because I wasn't well, really.

Geoff: 22:22

But I said to you, I said, let's get him on the record. Do you remember?

Jacqui: 22:25

Yeah. I think I did the last two late.

Geoff: 22:27

Yeah, anyway.

Jacqui: 22:28

I think I sang 500 Miles High, didn't I? Did you? And But Beautiful. I sang 500 Miles High, and But Beautiful. And I can remember the nerves was just and with a cold. So although that should have been a highlight, I think I was just totally nervous, you know. But it was a highlight in the sense that I will I sang with it. Well, it's another situation. Um I just played, I just was in Follies, Stephen Sondheim's Follies at Belfast at Grand Opera House in Belfast, but I had to learn to tap dance for it. At the audition, they said to me, Can you tap dance? I said, Well, I did it at drama. Oh my god. But that was a long time ago, and I said, Well, I'll take lessons. So I did. I found this fantastic teacher in Bedford, and she got me through it really. And so I had to tap dance with all these other dancers and sing I'm Still Here, which is a really, really tricky song. And I felt like

Geoff: 23:19

Not at the same time though?

Jacqui: 23:20

No, no, no, but three minutes after I finished tap dancing, I had to get someone stood backstage with a towel. I had to check, take my tap. I had about three minutes to recover and then go on and sing I'm Still Here. So I would say it was a highlight, but it was I felt like I'd climbed a mountain.

Geoff: 23:37

That's a serious achievement, then

Jacqui: 23:39

Yes, it was. So it was quite a memorable achievement. Wow, yeah. A mountain climbed.

Geoff: 23:44

So learning to tap dance, that's incredible.

Jacqui: 23:46

I can do a really good time step now, and I can do various steps that I couldn't ever do before.

Geoff: 23:51

Was it fun that

Jacqui: 23:52

I think the first week? Um because my mum died suddenly, and then and then I started rehearsals four days later. So I was in this whirlwind thing, you know, and I've but it was the tap dancing that got me through it, really, because I kept hearing my mum's voice saying, Don't you dare pull out because I wanted I was so sad, you know. I the first week I rang up Charlie, my husband, and said, I don't think I can do this. Yeah, but then I kept hearing my mum.

Geoff: 24:21

It's it's therapy. It's the therapy that you would have got from that. It's it's what we do, it's in our blood, isn't it?

Jacqui: 24:26

Yeah, it was big therapy. Yeah, and tap dancing was something really, you know, so physical and banging that floor, you know. So it got me through, and another lovely actress singer dancer in the in the cast, Rachel Stanley, she said, because she had lost her best friend at the same time I lost my mum, and she said, I think I think they've sent us here, you know, because it we, you know, it was it really did get get it got me through yeah, you know, that first seven weeks of. But then now it feels I feel raw, I think how I feel now. I don't feel really sad, but just a bit raw.

Geoff: 25:04

Yeah, yeah. Does that mean you've you haven't had time to grieve properly though?

Jacqui: 25:08

Well, I guess grieving it manifests itself in so many different ways, doesn't it? I think it comes at you with waves. Like I was sitting on the train today, and I I I don't know what thought was, but uh you're on this train full of people and you know suddenly these tears well up. You go, where did that come from?

Geoff: 25:25

Yeah, yeah.

Jacqui: 25:25

Um and it comes, I think it takes you by surprise more than anything.

Geoff: 25:30

Well, that's natural though, isn't it?

Jacqui: 25:31

That's grieving, isn't it?

Geoff: 25:33

Okay, so the next question what was the last concert you attended?

Jacqui: 25:37

The last one I went to was probably, Alex had got a load of my dad's music together at the Guild hall at Milton Court with students. Right. I think I think that was the last concert I went to.

Geoff: 25:50

My Lewis may have even been playing.

Jacqui: 25:52

He was playing bass. That's when I first heard him. And I've said to I said to Charlie, Blimey, he's good. He was good, he was one of the best, you know. All of the rhythm section were really good, yeah, including your Lewis. Yeah.

Geoff: 26:06

Well, there you go.

Jacqui: 26:07

Um I used to go to a lot more, you know, in my twenties and thirties. I used to go, used to go to all the Capital Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival stuff. I saw Claire Martin up in Edinburgh at the Queen's Hall.

Geoff: 26:20

Is there some memorable concerts that you can remember from when you were younger that maybe

Jacqui: 26:24

Yeah? I mean, I saw Al Jarreau about five or six times and he was unbelievable live.

Geoff: 26:30

Yeah.

Jacqui: 26:30

Did you ever see him?

Geoff: 26:31

I did, yeah. Hammersmith Odeon, I think.

Jacqui: 26:33

Wasn't he brilliant?

Geoff: 26:34

Yeah, yeah.

Jacqui: 26:35

I mean, everyone just fell in love with him. I didn't he had that way about him. And Diane Reeves, have you seen her live? I've seen her a few times.

Geoff: 26:42

I played with Diane Reeves.

Jacqui: 26:43

When? Where?

Geoff: 26:45

Do you know what I tell you this story? I've just got together with Trudy. Uh I was in McDonald's with my twins. My twins were like two years old or something. I get a call from someone at Sirius. Diane Reeves's bass player has missed his flight. Are you available?

Jacqui: 27:01

Wow.

Geoff: 27:01

And I I said, Yeah, okay. So I took the twins home, grabbed my bass, I went to the Festival Hall, and I did the gig with Diane Reeves. Yeah, I sighted the gig. And the best thing about it was Trudy was going to the gig.

Jacqui: 27:16

Wow. And you were just dating her, so she was impressed.

Geoff: 27:21

And I was on the stage.

Jacqui: 27:22

Brilliant. I do know. I think I was out there. Well, I don't, I saw her at the Festival Hall and it's part of the London Jazz Festival.

Geoff: 27:29

This would have been 1996 or 7 or something. Yeah.

Jacqui: 27:34

It could have been, I could have been there actually, because I'm she's unbelievable live, isn't she?

Geoff: 27:40

Yeah.

Jacqui: 27:41

She's just because when you see her, you know, backstage, or you know, I bumped into in a restaurant once and you'd never, you know, she's quite sort of plays everything down. And yeah, you get her on stage and it's unbelievable.

Geoff: 27:54

Yeah.

Jacqui: 27:54

And the audience would just they went nuts. Yeah. Did they go nuts that night?

Geoff: 27:58

Yeah. I mean, I can't remember much about it apart from

Jacqui: 28:01

Thank goodness I got through that.

Geoff: 28:03

What a great gift. Yeah, I mean it was incredible.

Jacqui: 28:05

Yeah, she was really thankful, was she?

Geoff: 28:07

That yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jacqui: 28:09

Blimey.

Geoff: 28:10

Amazing, yeah.

Jacqui: 28:10

So did you just literally go on and sight read the pad? You didn't.

Geoff: 28:13

Yeah, I had I had like an hour sound check. That's all I had, just to look at it. And then yeah. Anyway, let's not talk about me. No. Well, yeah, Diane Reeves. Diane Reeves. What's the the next question? Yeah. What do you what would you say is your musical weakness?

Jacqui: 28:29

Oh god. I, god, everything. Um, I guess, you know, not not being a great improviser is my biggest weakness, really.

Geoff: 28:41

Yeah.

Jacqui: 28:41

I've never really studied music, never. I've never studied music. If I had studied music, I probably would have been I think I always gave myself such a hard time because, of course, my dad, you know, is such a great improviser. And I used to think that I should just come out doing that. And of course, it's like it's um it doesn't work like that. You need to learn a language.

Geoff: 29:02

I think I think you still give yourself a hard time.

Jacqui: 29:05

Really?

Geoff: 29:06

Too much, yeah. And I think your natural ability is well incredible. And um you shouldn't beat yourself up about it.

Jacqui: 29:14

No, but natural ability gets you so far, but then you have to apply yourself to an actual, you know, because I keep saying to Charlie, why don't you write a book on vocal improvisation? I'll be your guinea pig, because you can just practice as my dog. She's a great one, she's improvising on her later.

Geoff: 29:30

You're gonna have to take that off.

Jacqui: 29:31

I think she's hungry. Okay. What's the time? Oh, 20 minutes.

Geoff: 29:34

Yeah, we're nearly finished.

Jacqui: 29:36

Then it's dinner time.

Geoff: 29:38

So you I mean, you went to you went to acting. You did you're into acting, so there was no formal musical.

Jacqui: 29:43

No, I studied acting.

Geoff: 29:44

I mean, you can read music though, can't you? Because you learn to play flutes.

Jacqui: 29:47

I was a good flautist, and I played, you know, to a high standard. I had a really nice sound on the flute, and um, so yeah, and I played piano, but piano and I never really saw eye to eye.

Geoff: 29:58

I really didn't know. You learn it so young, it's like a language, isn't it?

Jacqui: 30:01

Yeah. Because I I've I've met people who can't read music and it's really hard to teach as an older, you know, an older person.

Geoff: 30:09

Yeah.

Jacqui: 30:09

So I'm glad I did learn that. Everything needs to be learnt when you're a kid, doesn't it? And then it's easy.

Geoff: 30:14

It's true, it just takes a little bit more effort, doesn't it? When you're when you're older. Do you ever get nervous on stage?

Jacqui: 30:21

If I'm not prepared, yes. I do. Sometimes I get terrible stage fright. I think a little bit of nerves is healthy and good, you know. But if you think it's debilitating, then no, it's not good.

Geoff: 30:33

Yeah, it could be, yeah.

Jacqui: 30:35

Um I I tend to get nervous all the time. Every single concert I'm nervous. It's just a matter of how nervous. I'm I mean, I did a small church gig the other day and I was nervous, you know, and I was saying, why am I nervous? I know what I'm doing. I don't know. Just and and material that you don't know as well as you might is nerve-wracking. Yeah.

Geoff: 30:55

Okay, what's uh what's your favourite sandwich?

Jacqui: 30:59

I like an avocado and maybe tuna with lots of onion in it.

Geoff: 31:06

Raw onion?

Jacqui: 31:07

Yeah, that's my favourite, and tomato.

Geoff: 31:09

Bread? Bread crust.

Jacqui: 31:11

Sourdough bread. It's gotta be sourdough.

Geoff: 31:13

Right, okay.

Jacqui: 31:13

That's trendy, isn't it?

Geoff: 31:15

Excellent, yeah. Yeah. What about a favourite movie?

Jacqui: 31:18

I was thinking about this. I think it has to be The Godfather. I mean, the subject matter isn't my favourite, but I think the acting in it and the every time I see it, I see something different, you know, in so I think it is a work of genius.

Geoff: 31:32

So just the first one or the or the subsequent ones?

Jacqui: 31:35

Uh I think three isn't so good, is it? The first two are great.

Geoff: 31:39

I've been re-watching some Diane Keaton moments actually the last last couple of weeks. She was just brilliant. Woody Allen. Some Woody Allen and some some great interviews with her in um Johnny Carson, um, some different interviews for over the years. It's just she's she was so natural.

Jacqui: 31:54

I just can't believe she's gone, can you? Yeah. I felt like she was just our age somehow. She seemed ageless.

Geoff: 32:00

What you saw on the screen was her. You know, I mean in Annie Hall, she was she was her own, it was her own choice of clothes, wasn't it?

Jacqui: 32:07

Someone told me that she flipped houses for a you know, when when when the her movie career wasn't as going as strong, she would buy houses in New York, flip them and sell them. You know, that's how she earned her living.

Geoff: 32:18

So, what about a favourite venue? What kind of venues do you like to sing in?

Jacqui: 32:23

I think I do like, you know, the big concert halls.

Geoff: 32:26

Yeah.

Jacqui: 32:26

I like Birmingham Symphony Hall, it's got a beautiful acoustic. But then I do like churches, I like some clubs, but I'm much more I think I feel happier with an orchestra with a big space than than an intimate club or something. I feel a bit shy, you know, because they're right on top of me.

Geoff: 32:42

You can see in the whites of their eyes.

Jacqui: 32:43

Oh don't like that.

Geoff: 32:46

It's like when you have a big stage and the lights, it's kind of a barrier, isn't it?

Jacqui: 32:49

Yeah, it is. I suppose it's not good.

Geoff: 32:50

You travelled a lot, obviously. What have you ever a favourite city or a country you like to visit?

Jacqui: 32:56

I love Toulouse. We I know Toulouse quite well because we used to we used to have a little cottage down there. I love Lisbon. I love New York. Um, San Francisco has changed a lot, hasn't it? My my family live over there, San Francisco, and people have I haven't been for a while, but people say it's changed.

Geoff: 33:14

And your parents had a place in New York, so does that mean you spent a lot of time there when you were younger?

Jacqui: 33:19

Um, well, funnily enough, no, because I think my I was concentrating on my life at that time. Uh, but we did have some holidays there. I can remember walking around Central Park with my dad. There was nobody in the park. I mean, nobody. And we kept thinking, why is there nobody in the park? And then after about 10 minutes, we realised because it was like minus 10 or something. You know, it was a really, really cold, and of course, all most sensible people wouldn't have done it. But we would just say, Oh, let's go for a walk, and we were absolutely freezing to death. There was nobody in Central Park, and we managed to get home after about 15-20 minutes. I'll never forget that. I mean, look, yeah, London's not bad, is it?

Geoff: 34:02

London's great, yeah.

Jacqui: 34:03

Are you a London fan?

Geoff: 34:05

Yeah, I love London, yeah.

Jacqui: 34:06

You've always lived in London.

Geoff: 34:07

Yeah.

Jacqui: 34:08

Yeah.

Geoff: 34:11

So, what's the future? What's going on in the in the next couple of years? Where do you see yourself?

Jacqui: 34:16

Well, I've got this acting agent, and I would like to do more theatre, maybe some telly, maybe some musical theatre. Um, combine the singing with with acting. That's what I'd like, but who knows? I'm hoping my mum will be up there pulling a few astrological strings.

Geoff: 34:32

Is there particular parts or roles that you think you'd be good for?

Jacqui: 34:35

I'd like to play maybe Mrs. Lovett in in um Sweeney Todd. That would be my favourite role of all time. Right.

Geoff: 34:43

Where is is that on anywhere particular at the moment?

Jacqui: 34:45

No, I don't think so. I remember seeing Sheila Hancock Denis Quilley play it at the Drury Lane. Sondheim had only just written it. I think it may have played, yes, it probably played in New York, but then this was the first London production on it. And the critics just didn't understand it, you know, they couldn't work out. Have you heard the music for Sweeney Todd? It's unbelievable, isn't it? Yeah. So ahead of its time. So it I would love to do that before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

Geoff: 35:13

Did you want to meet Sondheim?

Jacqui: 35:15

Well, I worked with him.

Geoff: 35:16

Did you?

Jacqui: 35:17

I did Merrily We Roll Along.

Geoff: 35:18

So he was part of the production, he was guiding you, was he?

Jacqui: 35:22

He was directing Merrily with Paul Kerryson at Leicester Haymarket, and I did that with Maria Friedman. And then I did Into the Woods, and he came in the last week of the production and re you know, directed stuff. But the I got to know more in Leicester actually, because he he was there, he was sort of co-directing it, and so he was there a lot. And he did a masterclass when I was at The Guild hall, and I played Mrs. Lovelett then as a 17-year-old. It was on the South Bank show. But then I changed my career path and did a lot more music, and so I didn't then keep up with all my my theatrical work, which is a regret really. But what can you do? It's not too it's never too late.

Geoff: 36:06

Do you feel do you feel that the the the acting and the music are pulling against each other, or do you how do you feel?

Jacqui: 36:11

Well, I think if I could land apart where I brought the two together, I'm doing this Sondheim show with Charlie. We did it at Crazy Coqs, which is a lot of Stephen Sondheim's songs. In fact, I'm gonna have to start practicing lots of my own gigs, and who knows? I'm gonna hopefully get some auditions for things. Um so the nature of this business is you don't really know.

Geoff: 36:33

No, that's what's great about being a musician though, isn't it? It's you in you like change, you know, we like doing what you're doing.

Jacqui: 36:38

Like a normal office job or anything, yeah. And then it can be scary, can't it? Knowing where your next pay cheque's gonna be.

Geoff: 36:48

Well, lovely. I think that will wrap it up. Thank you so much for today. Thanks for your time and thanks for everything, and thanks for your beautiful singing. And um, so I'll see you very soon. I hope we'll work together in soon and um

Jacqui: 37:00

It's really lovely to have have you round our kitchen table. I've confiscated the dog's toy. I'll give it back to her.

Geoff: 37:07

You can give it back to her now.

Jacqui: 37:08

Yeah, there we go, Toski. Would you like your toy?

Geoff: 37:10

See you very soon.

Jacqui: 37:11

Oh, I'm gonna make it squeak.

Geoff: 37:13

Bye. See you soon.

Jacqui: 37:18

Bye bye, bye dear.

Announcement: 37:19

Thank you for making it to the end of another podcast. Please subscribe if you want to hear more of them as they land. The Quartet Jazz Standards Podcast is a UK Music Apps production. Quartet for iOS, taking your jazz play along to another level. Search for Quartet on the App Store or find out more at quartetapp.com.