Sailing To Byzantium

A stalwart of the London jazz scene, Irish vocalist/pianist Christine Tobin’s last album featured her own unique interpretations of songs from Carole King’s Tapestry.

Here she puts her own original melodies to the words of a dozen W.B. Yeats poems with dramatic and often spectacular results. With the aid of a small combo featuring double bass, guitar, flute and cello, it’s complex stuff with ambitious arrangements and tricky time signatures. Tobin’s voice, reminiscent at times of Ella Fitzgerald, weaves and meanders through Yeats’ often musical words to create a spellbinding, journey into the mind of the poet.

Actor Gabriel Byrne (Tobin’s former teacher at school in Dublin) lends his narrative voice to several of the poems including the ‘Lake Isle Of Innisfree’ and ‘The Pity Of Love’, his distinctive tones capturing the essence of the words. Magical and evocative stuff.