The 606 Club’s 40th Anniversary: Gwyneth Herbert (8:00pm); Anita Wardell; Ian Shaw & Friends at 606 Club

Singers are part of the life-blood of the 606 Club and for many years now Sunday nights have been known as “Singers Nights”. The vocalists we present come in all styles and configurations, but the common thread amongst them is that they are all very good!

I first heard Gwyneth Herbert as a young 20-something singing primarily Jazz standards (extremely well) in a duo that led to her highly acclaimed debut record “Bittersweet and Blue”. However there was, and is, much more to Gwyn than just a standards singer and over the last decade she has developed into a composer of quite brilliant original material as well as a performer of considerable note. Her quirky, idiosyncratic view of the world, so wonderfully realised in her material (she once told me she thinks of herself as a poet who sings) fitsperfectly in the quirky, idiosyncratic 606 Club! Very much part of the 606 Club "family" she is travelling quite literally hundreds of miles just to be with us this evening. “Brilliantly original” MOJO...

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Singers are part of the life-blood of the 606 Club and for many years now Sunday nights have been known as “Singers Nights”. The vocalists we present come in all styles and configurations, but the common thread amongst them is that they are all very good!

I first heard Gwyneth Herbert as a young 20-something singing primarily Jazz standards (extremely well) in a duo that led to her highly acclaimed debut record “Bittersweet and Blue”. However there was, and is, much more to Gwyn than just a standards singer and over the last decade she has developed into a composer of quite brilliant original material as well as a performer of considerable note. Her quirky, idiosyncratic view of the world, so wonderfully realised in her material (she once told me she thinks of herself as a poet who sings) fitsperfectly in the quirky, idiosyncratic 606 Club! Very much part of the 606 Club "family" she is travelling quite literally hundreds of miles just to be with us this evening. “Brilliantly original” MOJO

I first met be the terrific expat Australian singer Anita Wardell in the early 90's and since that time she has established herself as one of the most interesting and exciting jazz singers working in Europe today. Her sense of swing is wonderful as is her ballad singing, but it is perhaps her mastery of the difficult (and contentious) art of "scat" singing that has really placed her on a different level. It is a testament to her musical prowess that she has become a touchstone for this most demanding of musical skills, basically if you're not as good as Anita don’t do it! “Anita Wardell.....the most creative Jazz singer in London” Evening Standard

Widely considered to be one of the finest male vocalists in Europe, when I came to write this piece I tried to remember when Ian Shaw first performed here at the Club....and couldn't. Somehow it seems that Ian has always been a part of what we do here and his support (and bar spend!) have kept us going through the many travails that beset Jazz Clubs. His enthusiasm for the music is unabashed and whether it's performing on his own at the piano, telling his stories and singing songs that make you want to cry one minute and laugh out loud the next, or whether it's with his storming jazz trio tearing up an old standard Ian is guaranteed to give full value. Over the years he has grown from a local hero to a performer of international stature, yet his enthusiasm to perform at the Club has never waned and when I was thinking of putting this Festival together, he was one of the very first people I called. A great way to finish the evening and I have little doubt that, as is his style, both Gwyneth and Anita will be invited back on to the bandstand to join this vocal master. Promises to be quite a night. “Ian Shaw…our finest Jazz singer” Time Out

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