Maggie's Supper & Jazz Club
478 Richmond St.
London, Ontario
519.434.5545
****/4
Dressed in an elegant black gown with her flowing auburn hair cascading past her shoulders, Jaimee Paul enchanted diners at Maggie's Supper & Jazz Club Friday night with her breathy and smoky vocal renditions of jazz standards and Christmas favourites. Accompanied by John Noubarian on piano and Darryl Stacey on electric bass, Ms. Paul's performance was the perfect antidote for a cold winter's evening.
Hailing originally from Southern Illinois, Paul now calls Nashville, Tennessee home. During our interview between sets last night, Paul told me that music was not always her first choice as a career. "In grade school and high school, I wanted to be a Research Scientist and then I double-majored in accounting in college. I really loved the Math and Science parts of academic endeavour. Raised in a musical home, I've been singing since the age of five. I wanted to be all things," she recalled.
Luckily, for her growing number of fans, Ms. Paul chose music as her full-time career.
Attending a Southern Baptist church during her childhood, Paul was attracted to gospel singing with its emotion and four-part harmonies. Today, she deftly melds her gospel influences with jazz and pop standards. The result is a vocal style that captures listeners somewhat off-guard.
Last night when she started her first set with Bye, Bye Blackbird, the diners around me put down their knives and forks, stopped talking and listened attentively to her "huge" voice emanating from the bandstand. Best described as a cross between Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Natalie Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James and Bette Midler, Ms. Paul's alto-mezzo-soprano voice is a finely tuned instrument that enables her to bend lyrics around standards like Don't Get Around Much Anymore, L-O-V-E, What A Difference A Day Makes, Moon River, Sunday Kind of Love, A Foggy Day, and At Last, the title track on her most recent CD. Many of the titles also came from her earlier CD, Angel Like You.
This is Paul's third appearance at Maggie's and the question begged to be asked: What brings her to London, Ontario in the dead of winter?
"Roland Webster saw me in a Nashville club where my husband, Leif Shires, and I played on a regular basis. After seeing me several more times, he kept on saying that we had to come to Canada to play two places – Rossini's in Chatham and Maggie's in London. So two years later we finally took him up on it, and here I am," said Paul. "Each time I've been here, Londoners have been very welcoming and I love the atmosphere in Maggie's – it's a great jazz club and I love playing here."
Paul has nothing but the highest praise for Maggie's house-musicians – John Noubarian and Darryl Stacey. "John and Darryl are consummate professionals and I just love working with them. They're both wonderfully talented musicians who make my job as guest vocalist easy," said Paul.
At present, Ms. Paul is busy at work on three new recording projects. One is a blues-flavoured CD she has been working on during her trips to Canada and the other two are more jazz oriented ones back in Nashville. "I have a lot of irons in the fire right now, but something I would really love is if my husband and I could go on tour together in the very near future. I hope to be back in the London area in early Spring, maybe March or April," she said.
Jazz fans owe it to themselves to catch Jaimee Paul's performance Saturday night at Maggie's. Fans can keep in touch with her at
www.jaimeepaul.com.
Richard Young is the Managing Editor of The Beat – Arts In London. He also serves on the Executive Board of the London Musicians' Association with Vice-President John Noubarian.
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