Georgia Cécile beguiles with impressive Cheltenham set

The songwriting partnership of pianist Euan Stevenson and singer Georgia Cécile was responsible for one of the most heralded albums of 2021, Only the Lover Sings. Cécile’s career received another massive boost later that year when she was asked, at very short notice, to support Cheltenham’s head honcho Gregory Porter at the Royal Albert Hall. Three years before that, she had played the free stage at Cheltenham. And now she was back, headlining a sold-out show at the Jazz Arena.  

This was a gentle affair - just a piano trio (with Ferg Ireland on bass and Max Popp on drums), plus two backing singers (Sara and Gertrude from Estonia) in matching green dresses. The absence of a horn mellowed the whole thing out, as did the introduction of some new songs: notably ‘You Don’t Notice’, a tale of unrequited love with a gentle latin rhythm and featuring a great solo from Stevenson, and ‘Communion’, a Les McCann-inspired funky gospel tune. And there was a new version of ‘Harpoon’ from her first album, which has mutated from a bolero to a shuffle.

Not only are they peerless songwriters, but Stevenson and Cécile are equally discerning when it comes to the excavation of lesser-known songs from the history of vocal jazz: ‘Loads of Love’, for instance, was taken from a 1963 Shirley Horn album, while the gorgeous ballad ‘Mam’selle’ (which appears on Cécile’s recent duo album with Fraser Urquart) was recorded by Sinatra, among others, delivered here in a mesmerising piano arrangement à la ‘Peace Piece’.

While coming on like a diva during the songs, between them Georgia Cécile has a friendly, down-to-earth approach to the audience. Given the size of the venue, some rather more extravert material might have stirred them up a little, but Cécile does it her way or not at all, and currently she is exploring a “sophisticated Sixties” sort of vibe. And in any case, most of us were there to hear ‘That Voice’, with its extraordinary control in the higher register, typified by the achingly lovely ‘Bittersweet’.