Review: Jazz with Lunch at Taunton's Zizzi Restaurant - Phil Hill 06/11/11

SAX, drums and risotto were on the menu as the Zizzi restaurant in Taunton hosted its first jazz lunches on Sunday.

For that reason none of the guests would have suffered from indigestion later on.

The clatter of knives and forks was pleasantly drowned out by award-winning artist Becki Biggins, accompanied by renowned keyboard player Laurie Holloway, a double bass and drums.

Becki, who has scooped a host of awards and recorded music for two number one US albums, belted out several numbers with her Maria Muldaur-esque vocals.

She also entertained a larger than usual set of Sunday lunchtime diners in Zizzi with her sax playing.

During a couple of well-earned breaks diners were treated to a few music-only renditions, including a reluctant compilation of songs from the Beatles - reluctant because Laurie Holloway, who admitted turning professional in 1956, and had featured on Strictly Come Dancing and The Parkinson Show, said they ruined the jazz thing!

The session was hugely enjoyable, and Becki is back again this Sunday and on the first Sunday in December.

She introduced each piece in her friendly manner, and to watch her and the musicians sit down to their own lunch during the interval added to the informality.

The reason for the lack of indigestion? There was no way you could bolt down the delicious Italian food while tapping your feet and hands.

Click here for a link to the original article.

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Jazz FM - Bob Sinfield's Review of Becki's performance at The Bull's Head - 22/09/10

The initials BB seem to constitute a recurring theme among high-end jazzers. If you don't believe me, check the list below. Now this exclusive but burgeoning club has a new member. Becki Biggins's debut CD 'The Positive' and the Bull's Head gig at which she launched it on the 22nd September confirm the arrival of a gifted and likeable vocalist of immense charm and sensitivity.

Backed by a solid rhythm section (includingHarold Fisher on bone-shaking form at the drums), Becki's sparkiness freshened a range of intelligently-chosen standards from the diverse pens of, among others, Johnny Mercer, Michel Legrand, Melody Gardot and James Taylor (of 'Mud Slide Slim', not JTQ). Two numbers she included which don't feature on the first disc are apparently slated for the second which I'm greedy enough to be looking forward to already.

Oh, and did I say she also blows a mean tenor sax? For proof, try her take on 'There Will Never Be Another You', a long-neglected but ingeniously upbeat torch song. Give her website a look - and listen out with both lugs for further tracks from 'The Positive' on upcoming editions of my One O'Clock Jump on Jazz FM: I keep it right by the studio CD player at all times.

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Jazzwise Magazine - June 2010 - by Peter Quinn

'This follow-up to her 2005 solo debut First Love from 20-something singer, saxophonist and former NYJO member, Becki Biggins, is a 12-track collection of standards and pop material.  Biggins has already notched up a number one album in the US Smooth Jazz Chart, Hardcastle 5, with composer/producer Paul 'N-n-n-n-Nineteen' Hardcastle, for which she co-wrote four of the tracks.  Biggins is blessed with a seductive, golden-timbred set of pipes and, as her languorously lyrical solos prove (not to mention a BA in Jazz Studies from Leeds College of Music), certainly knows her way around a tenor sax.  

There are some strong statements on the album including a cover of Melody Gardot's 'Who Will Comfort Me?' which easily eclipses the original, and the metrical shifts of 'Cheek to Cheek'...  The singer couldn't wish for finer accompanists than pianists Laurie Holloway and Malcolm Edmonstone.'

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Reveiw of Becki Biggins and her Dream Team at the Six Bells, Fulbourn, 05/02/2010

By Eddie Konig

Becki Biggins?  A little-known Dickensian pie-shop proprietor?  A Tolkien escapee?  A Channel Five children's presenter?  No - I hadn't heard of her either - but I suspect hers is a name that we'll all hear a great deal more of in the future. 

Organised by Lynne Olney on behalf of 'Fulbourn Arts', Becki appeared with her 'Dream Team' at The Six Bells early in February.  Something of a coup this; a 2009 Grammy award nominee for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, winner of the Marlborough Jazz Festival's 'Best Newcomer' Award, Becki has had a No 1 album in the US Smooth Jazz charts and has toured extensively in the US and Europe and has appeared on numerous British TV shows - so - Los Angeles, New Orleons, 'The Big Breakfast', 'This Morning' - and now The Six Bells, Fulbourn High Street…

The Function Room was transformed into a very intimate 'Jazz Club' - the event was sold-out and 120 people packed the venue.  The 'Dream Team' opened the evening - Becki later remarked on how lucky she felt playing with such musicians - and it was easy to hear why.  Here were three wonderfully skilled musicians thoroughly enjoying the seemingly effortless interplay between instruments.  Harold Fisher on drums was just a blur of brushes in the background from where I sat but I have seldom heard a drum kit played more expressively, Dave Olney on double bass was the rhythmic engine room but incorporated deft and delicate  touches of originality and wit and Malcolm Edmonstone on keyboards was simply stunning - a virtuoso performance.

Becki sang a wide range of songbook classics and jazz standards, a timeless selection, but reshaped and reinterpreted them.  Her versions are melodic, hook-filled, warm and beautifully arranged to take advantage of her voice and the easy cohesion of her 'Dream Team' . The set sensibly began with the well-recognised  'Cheek to Cheek' and  'Lullaby of Birdland'  but it was Becki's version of 'Black Coffee' that I particularly enjoyed; it began with just  rich-roasted voice and slow, well-stirred bass -  a delicious blend!  Becki opened both halves of her set with songs that featured her tenor sax and I felt that we could have heard much more of that - her sax playing seemed to complement the phrasing and tone of her voice beautifully.  The second half featured more songs from Becki's new album 'The Positive' or, to give it its trendy or jazzy official title, 'The +Ve'.  'Accentuate the Positive' was certainly great fun but it was Becki's highly original version of 'Alfie' that showed off both the extraordinary range and control of her voice and also the individual and combined skills of her 'Dream Team'.  Dave Olney's bass brilliantly complemented and occasionally gently sparred with Malcolm Edmonstone's beautifully atmospheric keyboard solo and, whilst I am of an age to remember with some trepidation the twenty minute drum solos featured on some 1970's Prog Rock albums, Harold Fisher's drum solos showed how extraordinarily varied  and exciting a set of drums can sound in the right hands.

Fulbourn was indeed privileged to host an artist of Becki Biggins' standing.  Well over a hundred of us enjoyed an evening of fine-quality, well-chosen jazz songs from a singer and her trio demonstrating absolute mastery of their material and instruments and conveying it with warmth, ease and genuine enjoyment to an appreciative audience.

Becki Biggins?  Simply a very fine interpreter of classic jazz songs and a great entertainer.  We definitely will hear more of that name in the future…

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Reveiw of Becki Biggins, Alex Steele and Clive Morton at The Wheatsheaf,Swindon, 24/11/2009

By Sam Vaughan - Published in the Wilshire Ocelot, January 2010

Contemporary Jazz saxophonist and vocalist Becki Biggins brought the house down when she performed in front of a packed audience at the Wheatsheaf...

[To read the article in full, click here]