Jacqui Naylor
The Next Big Thing in Jazz
Jacqui Naylor has been called the "new voice of jazz" by Vogue. Jazz Times writes, "In the never-ending, 'next big thing' sweepstakes, bet on Jacqui Naylor." She is a tremendous and tremendously versatile singer songwriter with four albums to her credit, the most recent of which is called, Jacqui Naylor Live East / West recorded at Yoshi's in Oakland and Birdland in NYC.
Now what, you may ask, is the connection between Jacqui and The Restaurant Guys; and, why would she agree to come on our show? To the second question I have no answer, but as to the first...
There was a time when we would venture out to see live music performed ... at a reasonable volume ... in venues smaller than sports arenas. In these venues (we'll call them "joints") artists performed and we listened while we sipped our Manhattans or digested our Beefs Wellington. Music in such a venue (LIVE music, ORIGINAL music) was an intimate part of our lives and something we shared together like the cocktails and food.
I (Francis) have had the great good fortune to see Jacqui Naylor perform in similar settings on several occasions and, while each and every one of her albums is extraordinary, to see and hear her live is to have your heart broken several times in a single evening.
So on what may appear on the surface to be the flimsiest of pretexts, we welcome to the show Ms. Jacqui Naylor.
Podcast Date: 11/11/2005