‘I love Elis’ – Christine Tobin (vocals), Phil Robson (guitar), Mark Lewandowski (bass) & Kate Shortt (cello) pay tribute to the great Brazilian singer/icon & her amazing music!
Christine Tobin has been leaving our audiences spellbound for many years. It’s great to have her back now that she has been garlanded with awards for her compositions and singing.
Irish-born vocalist and composer Christine Tobin is based in the UK and spends her time between London and the beautiful Kent coast. Her style, although rooted in jazz, is eclectic and draws on a broad range of influences from Ireland to West Africa to Brazil (Oumou Sangare, Elis Regina etc). Her sound is rich, authentic and deeply expressive and was described by the Guardian as “Tobin’s 24 carat voice” while praising her both for the poetry of her compositions and her golden voice. Much of her repertoire is self-penned and Tobin has received many accolades for her skills as a writer and arranger. In 2012 she won a British Composer Award for ‘Sailing to Byzantium’, her settings of poems by W.B. Yeats and in August 2013 her interpretive powers were brought to the fore when she won a ‘Herald Angel Award’ at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for her show ‘A Thousand Kisses Deep”, her imaginative versions of Cohen classics. Also in 2013 she was shortlisted for two Parliamentary Jazz Awards, ‘Musician of the Year and ‘Album of the Year’. Romantic and radical, Christine is a musical free spirit who blurs the lines to create her own unique style that is streetwise and eclectic. In 2008 she was named Best Vocalist at the BBC Jazz Awards.
Her versatility and musical integrity has ensured that she is a much in demand guest with other bands. She has performed and recorded with a list of diverse creative artists, including musicians Kenny Wheeler, Mike Gibbs, Julian Joseph, Nigel Kennedy, Django Bates, Billy Childs, BBC Big Band, Peter Herbert, Carleen Anderson, Tim Garland, Cleveland Watkiss, Gary Husband, Liam Noble, Billy Hart, actor Gabriel Byrne, film director Mike Figgis and Pulitzer Prize winning poet Paul Muldoon.
She recorded seven albums for Babel, one of the UK ‘s most dynamic and creative indie labels. In a 4 star ****review of her 2008 album “Secret Life Of A Girl” the Guardian wrote “Dublin-born singer Christine Tobin is a jewel of the London jazz scene, streets ahead of the pack… She should be on a global stage, rubbing shoulders with fellow troubadours like Cave, Mitchell and Cohen. [Her] eloquent songs are framed by masterful arrangements…There’s no self-indulgence: it’s all about the songs”. Jazzwise hail her as “probably the most adventurous jazz singer of her generation in this country, with the ideas and willingness to push back the boundaries and explore new territory with each new album.” Since 2010 she has released three highly acclaimed, award winning albums for Trail Belle Records, ‘Tapestry Unravelled’ and ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ as well as her latest tribute to Leonard Cohen, ‘A Thousand Kisses Deep’.
