Charlene charms at Jazz After Dark

Charlene brought joy to listeners in late October in the intimate Jazz After Dark in Soho. The event, put on by events host Andy Franklin of A-Class Entertainments was supposed to happen last year but was thwarted by the pandemic. Charlene came ready with a tight band, treating the audience to her rich tones and versatile songwriting.

Ten years ago, she was at the Jazz Café for a Conya Doss gig. When Doss invited an audience member to sing on stage, Charlene’s friends volunteered her. Doss whispered lyrics, and Charlene sang them, impressing some well-connected people in the audience, who worked with her to produce her first album, Red Carpet (along with Italian artist Matteo Zarcone JM Soul of Music Connex, Undercover, and Purple Reign). Since then, she has shared the stage with Omar, The Floacist, Jon B, and Saint Motel. Several of her songs have been featured in the Netflix show Seven Seconds.

Before the show started, drunk tourists were already staggering down the streets of Soho, but inside the long, narrow, and low-ceilinged Jazz After Dark, the atmosphere felt intimate and familiar. Charlene welcomed and chatted with her audience (I was grateful she helped find me a seat at one of its red-topped tables, and introduced me to my neighbors for the night).

Once she took the stage, the London-based, British-Nigerian singer wasted no time setting the upbeat vibe. She started with ‘When the Sun Goes Down,’ a disco inspired song about turning music up after dark. For the next two hours, she gifted the audience songs of her own writing, some played for the first time with a live band. Her writing is as far-ranging as her voice, spanning across and beyond reggae, jazz, soul, and R&B, but all her songs sound like hits, memorable melodies she’d flesh out with gorgeous improvisations.

Amy Winehouse performed at Jazz After Dark regularly, and the walls bore several portraits and photographs of her. Charlene continued in Amy’s tradition, classic-sounding songs about love and heartache with clever lyrics and improvisation that would have made some of her other inspirations (Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Jazmine Sullivan) proud.

Without room for dancing and the tables’ proximity to the stage, the audience had a close window into the band’s workings. Charlene has a warm stage presence, genuinely joyful and free of pretension.  Jo Oware (guitar), Nathaniel AKA Natty (drums), Wasky (bass), and Greggx (keys/synths) had a fun chemistry between them, at times taking liberty to keep jamming after Charlene signaled the end of the song. Oware was a versatile guitarist, making wide use of the wah-wah pedal to add unexpected twang and support like a backing vocalist. He had a brooding solo on ‘Thank You,’ inspired by Charlene’s own runs.

Her songwriting and bandleading were highlighted in ‘Keep Shining.’ It started off like a classic soul ballad, but after getting the audience involved in the chorus, Charlene dug into a series of insistent runs. On her cue, Natty shifted the last chorus into a reggae groove on a dime.

‘Beard’ opened the second half, a light-hearted tune about grooming as an expression of love for a partner. Although Charlene made it sound easy, it was deceptively complicated (just try and make the word ‘exfoliate’ flow), and her runs channeled Billie Holiday. It would be easy for someone with such a vocal command let her technical skills rule her improvising, but Charlene always stayed true to the song, scatting, riffing, swerving, and diving around its melody and pulling out its emotion. The range of notes Charlene could add into her catchy melodies is impressive – in ‘Come Back to Me,’ for which her friend Michaela Shopland played bass, Charlene had one made the single word ‘I’ took a trip down over an octave.

 DJ Mulrain joined her on stage to sing ‘If We Try,’ a heartachingly gorgeous neo-soul tune with tight harmonies reminiscent of the early aughts. They started with smooth, glassy vocals that wound around intricate harmonies and built into a full-throated power ballad, precise pitch and synced turns of voice getting a standing ovation from the audience.

Her penultimate song was her latest single (released 1 October), ‘Mama Africa,’ which Oware also produced. It is a powerful song chronicling the richness of the continent and its resilience despite centuries of imperial exploitation. She closed with the playful lyrics and bouncing rhythm of ‘Central Line,’ longing for a hot stranger on the Tube. The band had a rapid-fire solos, and the audience squeezed into the standing room to dance.

Charlene’s album is due to come out in 2022.