Jazz

From: Levent Varlık, 19 July, 2019

In a Melody Maker interview, below, Sandy says, “Of course, what I really want to sing is jazz.” 

Also Karl Dallas wrote in another issue of MM, "This jazzy feel may surprise some who think of Sandy as someone who has emerged out of the folk scene to become a singer of more general appeal, but when she was just one of a crowd of girls who used to turn up at the old Cousins and the Scots Hoose – though outstanding among them – she always had ambitions so sing jazz." (for full review see http://www.sandydennyofficial.com/softie-sandy/).

Sandy always sang what she wanted including folk, jazz, rock, etc, but many people see her just a folk musician.

Cheers

Melody Maker, Sept 23, 1967

I Don’t Want To Be Labelled, Says Sandy Denny

Funny the way folk singers never seem to be satisfied with what they are. Take the case of young Sandy Denny, the small girl with the big beautiful voice who was such a hit on Alex Campbell’s recent “And His Friends” LP that Alex invited her up to be on his TV show.

Sandy played me the tapes of an album she made in Copenhagen with the Strawbs, curled up in an armchair looking like a blonde and very cuddly kitten and said: “Of course, what I really want to sing is jazz.”

True, she has a sense of timing many would-be jazz singers would envy, most tires old overdone folk lyric sound fresh and new. The pop-style things she does on this new album certainly swing, so I was beginning to see her point.

Then came her only solo track. Accompanied only by her own very individual guitar, she sang a song of her own composition so simply and sincerely that it seemed that this is jesy what she should be doing.

When you hear Sandy startle the back row in a club with her voice’s unexpected power –though never sounding shrill or forced- it’s hard to believe that they wouldn’t let her sing in the school choir.

“I sang in the choir at one school and when I switched to another one I waited for them to ask me. I’m still waiting.

“I started singing folk songs at Theo Johnson’s Folk Barge at Richmond. I never expected anyone to pay much attention, but pretty soon I had turned professional.”

People often compared her –not unfavourably- with Joan Baez and Judy Collins, but the comparison irretate her.

“I’m myself”, she said, pouting. “I don’t want to be labelled.”

Which is why, although she includes a number of British and American folk songs in her repertoire, she’s always looking for new material, and has started writing songs herself.

“I want songs that mean something to me,” she explains. “If they are folk songs, well OK. A lot of them are. But there are other songs that have something I want to say in them.

“I’m collecting material together now for my first solo album. I want it to really represent what I’m trying to do.”

Meanwhile, she is to sing in the forthcoming British Week in Brussels. Also on the bill will be Manfred Mann. Perhaps she’ll get a chance to sing some jazz.

From: Ed Goodstein, July 20, 2019

I agree too she would've/could've been a fascinating jazz singer. In some ways, she played around with her voice, almost like a jazz stylist anyway-- which makes listening to various versions of her songs fascinating. Yet another thing to speculate about with Sandy. Always some additional dimensions to think about, even after so long. Ed