Review: Drawn To All Things

The Scotsman

Kenny Mathieson

****

Ian Shaw is regarded in some quarters as Britain's top male jazz vocalist, and, as the title of this album signals, this is his take on the songs of Joni Mitchell. Mitchell's work is never particularly easy to cover, and the originals are all but impossible to better, but Shaw does a remarkably good job of imparting his own feel and phrasing to the material, and he is helped out by a fine cast of London-based jazz musicians, plus guest vocals from Claire Martin and Lea De Laria.

Shaw ranges widely across Mitchell's repertoire in his selections here, and makes a decent fist of representing at least three of Mitchell's songs which have not been covered before.