This is an archived post from our old website. Please excuse us if it looks a bit off, we are working through old posts and making sure they look tip top!
After a disastrous electric meter-related mishap transformed my flat into a cold, dingy, cave-like dwelling, I grumpily trudged along the drizzly, misty Scarborough shore to the Rotunda Museum in the hope that The University of York’s Vox Jazz Choir could offer some musical respite from what had been a slightly rubbish morning.
I had been intrigued by the Coastival programme’s proclamation of the acapella group as “specialising in jazz, pop, soul and folk”, with influence taken from Psychedelic Improv Jam band The Real, and R&B “vocal play” artists Naturally 7.
And oh boy do those funky, soulful acapela angels know how to make a disgruntled reviewer’s ears sing with joy. As soon as I stepped into the museum’s reception area, the majestic peals of the group’s voices could be heard reverberating down the gallery steps like those of a troop of pitch-perfect Pied Pipers. I followed a steady stream of festival-goers in a heady daze up the winding staircase, aching to put faces to the beautiful chorus above me.
Stepping into the Rotunda’s gallery space, the echoing vocals and picturesque setting combined to create an entrancingly ethereal scene, with the choir gazing down from a circular balcony above as their voices echoed off the walls and into our eager eardrums.
The choir’s silky-smooth rendition of Bon Iver’s ‘Woods’ was a mesmerising aural treat, and the group’s lilting and emotionally-rife cover of ‘Wisely and Slow’ not only did The Staves a great justice, but also transported my mind to a sunset-lit campfire on the banks of the rolling Irish countryside.
The mesh of varied yet complementary voices in the choir were clearly well suited to softly spellbinding folk songs. However, the group seemed equally at home breathing new life into solemn pop ballads, as seen by the group’s stormy cover of Cher’s ‘Bang Bang’ which even stunned a pair of tiny bickering children in the audience into silent awe.
Although each and every vocal arrangement was stunningly executed, my personal highlight of the set had to be the Vox Jazz Choir’s otherwordly delivery of Imogen Heap’s ‘Hide and Seek’. As a song which my ears hold dear, I was hoping they’d be rather particular about it, and despite the obvious absence of a vocoder, the choir got it alluringly spot on; their voices resonated magnificently around us, enveloping the audience in a warm harmonious hug.
From their first note to their last, The University of York’s Vox Jazz Choir had me sonically bewitched. My only complaint was the early conclusion to their performance – I would quite happily have sat through it all again, tucked away in that unorthodox yet flawless and reverberating venue.
Stumbling back out into the still misty yet pleasingly bright outdoors, all thoughts of missing-in-action electricians were peacefully omitted; as the voices of the acapella group continued to reverberate around my head like a much-smaller personal Rotunda.
