Thursday 16 August 2018, favourite songstresses

This week it was reported that singer Aretha Franklin was very ill after having suffered from pancreatic cancer. Sad to hear. She had to cancel a concert tour. I love her songs especially  Say a Little Prayer - here it is on You Tube: Say a Little Prayer. Laura loves it too. It's great to sing along in the car.
This afternoon I just read that she died. Very sad now.

Last night we also watched a BBC4 program recording of a program featuring Dusty Springfield, who died in 1999 of cancer. She also has a great voice. Here's Dusty singing Son of a Preacher Man: Son of a Preacher Man.

We have tickets to see Dionne Warwick at the Royal Albert Hall in September. I hope she sings Walk on By amongst other great songs.  Here you go: Walk on By.

Thursday 2 August 2018, Christine's chansons

My friend Christine Federspiel celebrated her 60th birthday last November 30th by performing at the Zurich Volkshaus. I wrote a review of her show afterwards.

Here's an extract from the review:

'Stylish songstress

The program consisted of big band standards and swing numbers from the 18-strong Pepe Lienhard outfit interspersed with vocal classics in the style of Hollywood, Piaf and Christine’s own inimitable style. Thanks to help from her dresser and stylist Susann Melzer, Christine graced the stage in three glittery dresses in gold, red and black, together with a number of suitable props. Her voice was on strong form tonight as she managed to avoid all the seasonal coughs and colds plaguing some audience members. She never put a foot, or a note, wrong. And Christine’s formidable language skills once again stood her in good stead as she performed Mack the Knife, Petite Fleur and Big Spender with equal grace and ease. The Zurich-based band accompanied Christine with appropriately subtle and supportive brass sounds, enhanced by solos on clarinet, saxophone and piano.'

Now her husband Urs has posted some of her songs from that show on YouTube. I just got round to listening to her version of Autumn Leaves today. She looks and sounds great.
Autumn Leaves sung by Christine F