



>Home >Biography >Accordion Crimes - latest CD >Accordion Crimes - reviews >Finally a Beginning - debut CD >Finally a Beginning - reviews >Gig Guide >Gallery >Discography >Compositions >Wind Café >Links >Contact			May 2 Batcombe Jubilee Hall, nr Shepton Mallet 8.00pm 01749 850311 KAREN STREET TRIO (L'ESPIIT DU JAZZ) with Andy Tweed (sax) and Andrew Barrett (guitar) as part of Take Art tours May 10 Westonzoyland Community Centre, nr Bridgewater 8.30 01278 691310 KAREN STREET TRIO (L'ESPIRT DU JAZZ) with Andy Tweed (sax) and Andrew Barrett (guitar) as part of Take Art tours May 16 St Clement Dane's Church, The Strand 2.30pm LONDON CONTEMPORARY CHURCH MUSIC FESTIVAL performance of newly arranged hymns for jazz quartet and childrens choir . St Clement Danes C of E school choir plus London College of music Chamber Choir, with Karen Street (accordion) Paul Clarvis (percussion) Mark Hodgson (bass) John Paricelli June 15 Meeting House Arts Centre., Illminster 8.00pm 01460 55783 KAREN STREET TRIO (L'ESPIRT DU JAZZ) with Andy Tweed (sax) and Andrew Barrett (guitar) as part of Take Art tours June 23 City of London free lunchtime concerts 'Piaf -A Celebration of a legend' with TINA MAY June 26 The Custom House, South Shields 0191 454 1234'Piaf -A Celebration of a legend' with TINA MAY July 3 National Theatre Foyer. 5.45pm free event with LUCA CIARLA (violin) July 10 Frome Festival, Frome Somerset 7.30pm KAREN STREET with FRED BAKER (Guitar) and ANDY TWEEN (percussion) July 11 Theatre Royal Bury ST Edmunds 01284 769505 'Piaf -A Celebration of a legend' with TINA MAY July 15 Kinsale Arts Week, Co Cork, Ireland. Intimate History - Jake Oldershaw & company July 18 Torch Theatre, Milford Haven 016466941 'Piaf -A Celebration of a legend' with TINA MAY Aug 22 Caryford Community Hall, Ansford 01963 350160 KAREN STREET TRIO (ESPIRIT DU JAZZ) with Andy Tweed (sax) and Andrew Barrett (guitar) as part of Take Art tours Sept 6 & 7 as part of Roland V accordion week, St Audries Bay. Workshops, concerts - more details to follow October 19 Tilburg, Netherlands. Solo performance as part of book launch about the Giulietti Sound. PAST QUARTET GIGS Ealing Jazz Festival Bath Interntaional Festival Teignmouth Jazz Festival Museum of garden history, London St Ives Jazz CLub Lauderdale House, London Square Chapel Arts, Halifax Inn on the Green, Oxford Be Bop Club, Bristol Jazz North East - Newcastle Le Petit Jazz - The Little Theatre, Wells The White Swan, Stratford upon Avon Gumbles Jazz Club, Staffordshire Past Gigs with the Quartet National Portrait Gallery OTHER PROJECTS Kate Westbrook: The Nijinska Chamber A celebration of the life of the choreographer and dancer Bronislava Nijinska, lyrics by Kate Westbrook, music by Mike Westbrook. Performed by the duo Kate Westbrook (voice), Karen Street (accordion). Album produced by Jon Hiseman for release on Voiceprint April 2006. REVIEW Kate Westbrook’s previous recorded projects, Good-bye Peter Lorre (Femme, 1991) and Cuff Clout: A Neoteric Music Hall (Voiceprint, 2001), have both exploited one of the most distinctive and affecting voices in the music to powerfully dramatic, if basically heterogeneous effect; on this latest album (significantly labelled on its front cover ‘KW in The Nijinska Chamber’), she has created an entirely homogeneous presentation, via nineteen short songs interspersed with spoken commentary, dealing with various incidents from and matters pertaining to the life of choreographer Bronislava Nijinska. Early life in St Petersburg, first love, dance classes, the status of her celebrated brother and Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, her 1921 escape to Vienna to join Nijinsky (by this time in an asylum), her unhappy devotion to Chaliapin, her final years in America (from where she reminisces, forming the narrative spine of the piece) are all touched on via songs of great tenderness and sensitivity, delivered from a variety of perspectives that perfectly utilise Kate Westbrook’s extraordinary vocal versatility and flair for the theatrical. The music, written by Mike Westbrook, is appropriately striking, consistently emotional and touching without ever veering into sentimentality, and in accordionist and occasional fellow singer Karen Street (the sole accompanist throughout), the music has found a superb interpreter, the varied textures and tones of her instrument perfectly capturing the subtlest shades of emotion expressed in the songs, from the tenderness of first love to the simple enjoyment of a milk shake. Although clearly designed as a stage presentation, where its humour, pace, variety and intimacy would come into their own, The Nijinska Chamber works well as an album, and provides yet more evidence, were it needed, of Kate Westbrook’s importance as an artist, unaffectedly weaving into her music, as she so often does, elements from the visual, dramatic and performance arts in a way unique to her. Chris Parker - The Vortex Web Site Past Gigs with the Quartet Ealing Jazz Festival Corsham Festival Bath International jazz Festival Lauderdale House National Portrait Gallery Square Chapel Arts, Halifax St Ives Jazz Club Teignmouth Jazz Festival Garden of Museum History, London Stratford Jazz club Jazz North East The Be Bop Club, Bristol