Horovitz recalled as songbird flies
As the capital's major jazz festival got underway, a young Londoner in the shape of Ayanna Witter-Johnson raised memories of an inspirational mentor
THERE WAS a delightful moment in last Friday’s inaugural concert as the London Jazz Festival returned to thrill us after the pandemic crises of recent times: a full house in the Royal Festival Hall and a broadcast on both BBC4 and Radio 3.
The opening event was entitled Jazz Voice and brought together a remarkable trail of vocal talent, nationally, culturally and sexually diverse, supported by a large and marvellous big band, the London Jazz Festival Orchestra, under the baton of a master arranger, the trumpeter Guy Barker.
The instrumental highlight was probably provided by US alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin – who also briefly rapped – and wowed the crowd with her soaring facility on her horn, but the tenderest interlude for me brought to mind memories of a recently-deceased writer.
Ebullient host and genre-busting singer Jumoké Fashola introduced London-based performer Ayanna Witter-Johnson, an extraordinary combination of R&B vocalist and stand-up cellist, with a very touching anecdote.
Fashola explained that Witter-Johnson, who had earlier delivered a high octave rendition of the Gibb brothers’ ‘How Deep Is Your Love’, was ‘about to perform an original composition of hers, that has never been recorded, inspired by her friendship with the late, great Beat poet Michael Horovitz.’
She continued: ‘Apparently every time they said goodbye after a phone call, he would say, “Sing on, nightingale.”’
Horovitz, who died aged in July aged 86, spent a lifetime writing poetry and, crucially, performing it with ensembles of all kinds but also, as an integral part of that process, encouraged and gave stages to multiple new talents, one of them Witter-Johnson herself.
To hear the new tune ‘Sing On, Nightingale’, the fragile and ethereal soprano of this singer rising to the upper registers to mimic the warbled notes of of a near-mythical bird on the wing, was to remember the soaring, sometimes undersung, influence of the man who coined the title phrase and gave some potent inspiration to this original and rising talent. Highflying indeed.
Note: My New European obituary to Michael Horovitz, ‘A hero of British radical poetry’, which appeared on July 10th, 2021, can be found here: https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news-europe-news-michael-horovitz-obituary-poet-beats-8134652/