The girl can sing!

It was Valentine’s yesterday and apparently I wasn’t alone in thinking that a romantic evening of love songs at the Ellington sounded like a great start to the evening. There were couples from 18 to 80 and everything in between as well as friend and family groups along for the evening.

The Ellington had done a great job at creating an ‘in the round’ space for vocalist, Simone Craddock and guitarist Aaron Deacon to perform and the candlelight was beautiful and just right for the show. I had seen tickets that offered VIP tables on the stage and thought ‘god no! I don’t want to be on the stage with the performers!’ Turns out it wasn’t an issue. Guests were on the stage (and around the regular seating and standing area) and Simone and Aaron were in amongst the crowd off the stage.

The show was wonderful. Simone is a natural performer. She had the audience laughing along through out the whole set and Aaron is an amazing guitarist. He was so fun to watch as he tried to guess which song it was that Simone was introducing each time (the look of fear on his face as Simone asked if anyone had any requests was a beautiful thing :p). They make a great musical team.

Every time Simone started to sing her voice surprised me. Her speaking voice and singing voice seem so different, she slid into those 1940s sounds so well. The songs were generally considered classics but as Simone said jazz is so much fun, it’s different every time! She and Aaron seemed to play off each other and it was like sharing an evening jam session with friends.

If you are a jazz lover, this one is for you.