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11/14/2006: "Jacqui Naylor"

I've been a fan of Jacqui Naylor for a few months now after hearing her doing an "acoustic smashup" of the Jazz standard My Funny Valentine with AC/DC's Back in Black on Sirus radio's Classic Jazz station. A "smashup" is where two unrelated pieces of music are played together and they "work" or are made to "work" usually this is done by re-mixers using lots of digital equipment. Jacqui and her band do it live and on the fly, and for the songs where it works it adds humor, and a lot of new life into songs everyone has heard before. She and her band have great chops in general, Jacqui is a very good singer with excellent interpretive skills, not one of the great voices of the 21st century (yet) but an all around excellent performer. Art Khu is her pianist and guitar player and his playing is a great pleasure to listen to, the rhythm section is very talented and versatile. They are on tour now, I just saw them in Boston, try to catch them if they show up near you.