Simone Craddock is an accomplished stage actress, performing in theatres throughout the UK, and a singer, working with two vocal harmony groups. She has had a passion for jazz for many years, and cites Sarah Vaughan and Nancy Wilson amongst her original influences, Kurt Elling and Dee Dee Bridgewater amongst her more modern inspirations. She has made a concerted effort to develop as a jazz singer over the last six months, playing bars and restaurants in South and Central London. Her hard work has paid off, and she headlined at Crazy Coqs in Piccadilly last night, managing to sell out the prestigious art-deco venue.
She was joined by pianist Benjamin Croft, who apparently helped with the arrangements, fellow-Australian Ashley De Neef on double bass, and Tristan Mailliott on drums. The theme of the evening was Jazz On Film, and given the wealth of material available, she was probably wise to focus on tunes which featured in Hollywood movies.
She open with Ellington's Caravan, which was composed back in 1936, and featured heavily in the 2014 movie, Whiplash. The song featured a dramatic opening, her voice soaring above the music, but it felt a little ragged at times - which was probably just a reflection of nerves. Her vocal on Blue Skies seemed to support this, immediately sounding more relaxed. The song was written by Irving Berlin, of course, and originally featured in Al Jolson's version of The Jazz Singer in 1927. Her version of As Times Goes By was exquisite, lingering just behind the beat, and when De Neef produced some bowed bass to bring the song to a close, there was a roar from the crowd.
Simone quickly adapted to the larger stage, with a fun anecdote concerning Rob Lowe - one of her few Hollywood encounters - and making a joke about the lack of jazz tunes in Star Wars. As the first set came to a close, she showed her versatility as a singer, taking on W.C. Handy's St. Louis Blues. It was an early hit for Bessie Smith, back in 1925, and was performed by Nat 'King' Cole in a biopic about Handy more than thirty years later. Her voice was strong and bluesy, and Croft's rolling piano worked well.
The second set opened I Let The Song Go Out Of My Heart by Duke Ellington and Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?, which was sung by Billie Holiday in 1947. It was good to hear some lesser known movie songs, rather than just the more obvious standards, and showed that the singer had done her homework! She counted off Cole Porter's You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To at a furious pace, but managed to keep up. When a friend in the audience offered her a glass of wine between songs she was glad to accept, and by that stage, she had certainly earned it. A soft, breathy version of My Heart Belongs To Daddy followed, which was quite superb, before the show was brought to a seasonal close with Little Drummer Boy - not an obvious film song - and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. "You might want to sing along," she joked to the audience, "but try not to!" The audience soon joined in, and by the end of the song, everyone was on their feet, roaring for more, despite the late hour.
Simone Craddock put on a fine show. One suspects that her stage training helped her to transition to the bigger stage, but she also proved that she had the jazz (and blues) chops to carry it off with aplomb. Jazz standards are a crowded market, of course, and it will be interesting to see how she develops as a singer in 2016. It was smart to include some old songs that have fallen out of favour, and hopefully she will start to include more of her own songs in her repertoire in the months ahead. Either way, UK jazz fans can expect to see more of Ms. Craddock going forward.
