Should put singer Tammy Payne in a deservedly bigger spotlight.
Tammy Payne has been one of the finest soul and jazz singers that the UK has produced in the two decades, and, sadly, she’s also the one got away. Back in the early 90s she did an absolutely brilliant version of Deniece Williams’ Free, where she hit the high notes with a soaring grace, then made an excellent single, Take Me Now, at the height of the Acid Jazz movement. And then she disappeared. The last time I was in her native Bristol I saw her drumming in a samba school. So this, Payne’s debut album, a good two decades later than expected, is one of the most intriguing releases of the year, above all for the fact that it represents a relatively bold departure from the aforesaid work.