TINA HARROD – TEMPORARY PEOPLE

Tina Harrod is the thinking, feeling person’s Nora Jones. When Tina Harrod sings she is the vocal embodiment of a real life lived; a life with all its complexities, all its foibles and frailties along with its joys and exaltations. Her Worksongs album of last year reinterpreted songs by the likes of Nick Drake and Bob Dylan with a class and sophistication reminiscent of the great Nina Simone (who she also covered). Temporary People continues Tina’s collaboration with the inimitable trio of bassist Jonathan Zwartz, pianist Matt McMahon and drummer Hamish Stuart. To hear the subtle interplay of these three musicians behind Harrod is to understand how music is a language, and how great conversations are possible – MacMahon’s quiet and thoughtful observations interspersed amongst the thread of cohesive dialogue that Zwartz and Stuart weave. All allowing for Harrod to float and soar; never more so than on Underneath Your Spell, where Harrod takes us under her wing and shows us the view from the skies with the aid of luscious string arrangements by Adrian Keating. The Buried Treasure provides the greatest cross-over moment on the album, a jazz-pop groove that puts the aforementioned Ms Jones to shame. Let us hope its title is a misnomer.

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