In a black dress, Caro Emerald is playing her UK debut. Behind her, an eight-piece band is squeezed onto the Jazz Café’s small stage. Snappy and pin sharp, they’re in black suits, white shirts and black ties. Except the guitarist, who’s jacket-free. Three brass players are ranged behind music stands. Nothing is overstated. Emerald races through her jazz-grounded pop, the rumba-ish “A Night Like This” ending a set that filters filmic swing through a current pop sensibility.
By this time last year - to the week - Caro Emerald’s Deleted Scenes From the Cutting Room Floor had been at the top of the album charts in her native Netherlands for 30 weeks. The former Caroline Esmeralda van der Leeuw’s debut single “Back it Up” had set the scene, by infusing a swing counterpoint to Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” with modern R&B leanings. She soon breached her border, went double platinum in Poland and has spent 10 weeks in the Top 10 of our album charts, reaching number four.
She arrived at this success after having been both behind the scenes and on stage. A trained jazz vocalist, she was awarded a degree by the Amsterdam conservatory of music in 2005. She’s sung solo, with vocal-only harmony outfits and the funk-inspired big band, the Philharmonic Funk Foundation. She also teaches singing and was a vocal coach on the Dutch TV version of The X Factor.
Last night’s audience didn’t need any coaching. All the songs were known, and when an opportunity to sing along came, it was taken. This felt less like a debut, more like the return of an old friend. When “Dr Wanna Do” was stretched out with a lengthy, stage-front sax solo the song remained familiar. No first night nerves, and no feeling each other out. The audience was instantly onboard.
Relaxed, Emerald wasn’t showy. That was left to guitarist Weiger Hoogendorp, a school-of-Richard Hawley player, who plonked a spectacularly hammy rockist solo onto “Just One Dance”. Executing half pirouettes on his tip toes, he could have topped a music box. Apart from that cod-rocking moment, he was clipped, precise. His elongated intro to “A Night Like This” steered a path between “Secret Agent Man” and “Out of Limits”. Git Hyper’s scratching at his turntables was fine incorporated into the songs, but when showcased it edged into novelty.
Emerald’s voice was key. Sailing through highlights “The Other Woman” and “Lipstick on his Collar”, she stuck to the melodies. Three songs in, “Back it Up” was recast as a syncopated singalong. She didn’t improvise, something she could easily do. Her background might be jazz, but in embracing pop she’s acknowledging that the song counts more than any demonstration of technique. This doesn’t mean she’s coasting. It doesn’t mean she’s abandoned jazz. It means that she could probably do anything she wants. She’s confident.
Notions of whether this is jazz, pop or what became irrelevant last night. It was obvious why Caro Emerald is massive abroad, why she’s just about that here. Whatever the wrapping, this is pop that’s meant to be popular.
Find Caro Emerald on Amazon
Buy tickets for Caro Emerald at O2 Shepherds Bush Empire in London on 13 December, 2011
Watch Caro Emerald perform “Back it Up”
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