Every now and again a gig creeps up on us and catches us by surprise, and to many it just passes them by when they hear about it all too late. So, here’s the heads up! Singer Christine Tobin, who plays concerts in Dingwall and Wick in May, has just been crowned Vocalist of the Year by order of Parliament! If that isn’t a wake up up call I’m not sure what is!
Dublin-born Tobin has just won the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, the UK’s most prestigious recognition for jazz musicians, educators, media workers and organisations. Nomination is open to the public but the final decisions was made by the 100-plus-strong All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group, whose members represent both the House of Commons and the House of Lords and work to raise the profile of jazz in the UK.
“It’s always nice to get recognition for your work,” says Tobin, who won Best Vocalist at the 2008 BBC Jazz Awards and a British Composer Award for her 2012 album Sailing to Byzantium. She also won a Herald Angel at the Edinburgh Fringe last August for the show that she’s bringing to Dingwall and Wick, A Thousand Kisses Deep, her salute to singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen.
“A Thousand Kisses Deep”
“Forty years later I still love it and I’m really looking forward to singing it in Dingwall”
“My elder sister had an album called Fill Your Head with Rock that was a compilation of diverse music from the early 1970s. Leonard Cohen’s You Know Who I Am was on it and I loved it. Forty years later I still love it and I’m really looking forward to singing it in Dingwall and Wick because I’ve never been as far north in Scotland before.”
So there we have it. Not just a jazz vocalist, and an award winning one at that, but she also here to celebrate Leonard Cohen’s 80th birthday. This is a real coup for both venues in the north. You can see Christine on the following dates in our neck of the woods:
Sat May 24: The Greenhouse, 14 High Street, Dingwall 2pm 01349 867135
Sun May 25: Wick, Lyth Arts Centre 8pm 01955 641 434
