To celebrate the release of her new album “The Second City”, Shameem’s full band is undertaking a national Australian tour in late February/ early March, spanning 9 shows in 7 cities over 11 days! All the details for the shows, including ticket links, are here, barring one surprise solo show which will be announced on Facebook and Twitter during the tour itself.
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Photos by Quiet Chaos. Check out a review for this show by Lady Lex (from Scene Magazine).
Sound check at El Rocco, Sydney
Four days, four shows, four cities in four states. Sound like a mad mad mad mad schedule to you? It was! Let’s dispel the myth now: touring is not like going on a holiday where you happen to rock up to a club some evenings and play a show. It’s hard, grinding work… great fun, but tough!
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The Brisbane Jazz Club was hectic this Saturday evening; it was like unfurling a surprise gift. A classy supper club, the beautiful cityscape posed a wonderful setting to the stage of a simple jazz rhythm rhythm section with bass, guitar, keyboard supported by a grand piano and a jazz kit propping the backup vocalist and vanguard of Perth singer-songwriter Shameem. Covers of ’90s tracks from Jon Secada’s ‘Just Another Day’ to Erykah Badu’s sassy ‘Certainly’, and a stunning unplugged piano version of 4 Non Blonde’s ‘What’s Up’, were worked in alongside originals from Shameem’s self-titled album. A charming stream of patter explained the history of each song. From the strawberry coloured birthmark on her cheek for ‘Strawberry’, to a woman’s perspective in a male dominated world with ‘Yin’ and the funky groove of ‘Parents & Children’, Shameem’s vocal suppleness and song-writing talents were on display. Her melismatic improvisation and scatting shone as her tones varied between angelic and forceful. Shameem’s dynamic charisma was apparent to all while her band pulsated. The guitar wandered in and out of melodies, the keys enhancing textures, the drums abounding with rimshots while the bass remained at the centre of this controlled cataclysm. The performance had all the reminiscence of Jacques Prevert, the R&B of Angie Stone, an Ella Fitzgerald treatment with the tightness of a Gil Evans score and the pace of The Brand New Heavies; unplugged and lashed with exuberance. There’s nothing like the vibrancy of live music. Package it in the Brisbane Jazz Club with top musicianship and it can’t be beat.
Lady Lex, Scene Magazine
Photos: Quite Chaos
With the release of her debut, self-titled album, Perth songstress Shameem Taheri-Lee is proving to be Australia’s answer to Alicia Keys. Tony McMahon investigates.
“I actually had recorded an EP back in 2009,” Taheri-Lee says, putting into context the approach she took to her debut album. “The EP was recorded more like a jazz project – we did three takes for each song, and then chose the best take. With this album we took more time and put a bit more consideration into production. Also, when we went to record the album, the band had been together for much longer and we’d performed and fleshed out the songs much more than we did before the EP recording… so the arrangements are more mature.”
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By Lady Lex
Nothing can equal the dynamism of a stage of musicians blowing their horns, banging the drums, beating the bass and hitting the keys with a gorgeous jazz singer who writes her own lyrics out front with a Shure S52 in hand.
The process for live music is an organic beast: it’s a development that begins with learning the craft by stitching together the music – writing the lyrics, bringing the musicians together, laying all that work down on a track before performing it to an audience.
In this weary world where cheek has replaced charm, talent is revered at the push of a button and the word ‘band’ is often confused with a multitude of dancing singers. So, it’s a breath of fresh air when a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist blows into town with a band of musicians in tow. And this breath of fresh air is Shameem Taheri-Lee.
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This July Shameem & band are taking to the road… All tour dates are listed here – tell your friends all around Australia not to miss these shows! Get social by sharing around the tour’s Facebook event, and tweeting @shameemmusic hashtag #shameemnational tour – help us to create some buzz!!
BLOG ENTRY 15/11/10
So I’m in limbo right now… waiting to see if grants come through for WA tour (planned for February) and the songwriting trip to the UK (planne
d for May). Hate this waiting! I’ve decided that if I don’t get the funding for the WA tour, that I’ll cut the tour in half and make it a short one, mainly around the south-west of WA. But the UK trip… gee, I could really do with that funding!
I’ve never been one to dwell a lot on money, but unfortunately it’s the name of my game this year, if I want to do the things that I want to do! I’m now starting to brainstorm for a tour to Australia’s eastern states (think: Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane)… and that I will DEFINITELY need funding for.