08 March 2016 (gig)
20 March 2016
Dalston is one of those areas of London that has next-one-for–gentrification all over it. The signs are everywhere the coffee shops, the odd little trinket places and flats going up willy-nilly.
It also has this charming basement jazz bar which is the ideal setting for an intimate performance from Alejandra Ribera; solo with an acoustic guitar. And she is on good form quipping that she didn’t realise she was special having a vagina when informed that it is world women’s day. The Canadian singer/songwriter – with roots in Scotland and Argentina - played a short set from her new album, La Boca.
A complex album of shifting moods, tones and entwining multi-instrumentation it could have been difficult to translate in this setting. Opening however with Goodnight Persephone it’s obvious that the songs can handle being peeled back to the core. A stripped back No Me Sigas retains its quirky charm and I Want still has its raw ambulatory power. It also allows Ms Ribera’s seductive and distinctive voice to come to the fore, she loses none of her resonance or power to tell a story.
Ostensibly a jazz artist she also flirts with folk and Country. Oddly the latter is a version of The Proclaimers 500 Miles, which is about that distance from the album version, itself far removed from the original. So Alejandra Ribera is not afraid to experiment which is probably why tonight she creates an ambience that eerily combines an earthy jazz bar with the more rarefied climes of the hotel piano lounge. An interesting artist who could be on her way to being unique.
Photo courtesy of Lawson Taylor @lawsonjamestaylor
