Anticipating a rollicking set of hillbilly jazz, I eagerly paid the $10 cover to hear Lauren Krum sing with The Project H at the Westport Coffee House last Thursday.
I didn’t get what I paid for.
Instead, the collaboration between the vocalist from the alternative country band The Grisly Hand and the trombone-led jazz collective was a sophisticated exposition of adult pop.
Rather than the Bob Wills-style Western swing I expected, Krum and the band played elegant renditions of material by the likes of Beck, Emily King, Michael Kiwanuka and Amy Winehouse. The result resembled a promising rehearsal for a Shelby Lynne recording session.
Only the last selection, a tender reading of the standard “Why Try to Change Me Now?” that featured a sensitive contribution from saxophonist Brett Jackson, could be comfortably classified as jazz.
While the show was nothing like what I’d anticipated, it was even better than I’d dared to hope.
(Original image by Plastic Sax.)
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