June Tabor

By Tony Benjamin

By 2013, June Tabor had been one of the UK’s top folk singers for nigh on 50 years. So it was something of a shock for folk and jazz fans alike when she made her debut that year on ECM Records, one of the worlds most exclusive contemporary jazz labels. The link was the trio Quercus, formed around 2005 with pianist Huw Warren and saxophonist Iain Ballamy, and it’s that which brings her to St George’s this November.

Speaking down the landline from the cottage on the Welsh borders where she and partner Mark Emerson have lived for 34 years June laughs to recall that unexpected career twist: “I wouldn’t ever have dreamed that was possible! Our amazing sound engineer Paul Sparrow had recorded a number of Quercus concerts. The one at Anvil Arts in Basingstoke had a fabulous piano and everything was right about it so we sent it off to Manfred (Eicher) at ECM saying ‘would you be interested in doing a record with us?’ He listened to it and said ‘Why do you want to make an album when you already made an album? This is it!’ So that live recording was then mixed in Oslo to fine tune it. We’d actually presented him with an album ready made and he said ‘we’ve got to have this’.”

That apparently straightforward story will infuriate any jazz musician who knows the extreme fastidiousness with which Manfred Eicher guards his record label. But his response reflects the unique success of Quercus in combining the spontaneous flow of musical ideas from Huw and Iain with the assured emotional clarity of June’s rich-toned vocals. That eponymous first album was followed by 2017’s Nightfall, again recorded ‘live’, albeit without an audience, with no overdubs or retakes – something June insists on: “I find I do things best as a piece and certainly as far as I’m concerned the more you sing something the less it means. So if a take doesn’t work we leave it and go onto something else and maybe come back and try it the next day.”

Her years in the traditional music world had given June a clarity about what makes for a good song: “The starting point of choosing material for me is words: definitely words. You can do things with a tune but the words carry the song and I want songs, in the main, that tell good stories – even jazz standards. They shouldn’t be just a vehicle for a very interesting tune but without any purpose.

That’s me personally, I wouldn’t impose that on anyone else, but I do like songs that draw you in and you see them like a cinema film. It doesn’t have to be a story that starts at A and goes on to somewhere else further down the alphabet. It can be a series of impressions but with a very strong visual impact. That’s the kind of song I like to sing and I’ve discovered that’s my metier, singing that kind of song.”

“Traditional song really has pinned down love gone wrong like no other art form, even the jazz repertoire. There’s traditional music that is just pure heartache and I like to sing it. I think it can help people who’ve been through that kind of thing to think ‘I thought I was the only one that made that kind of mistake but I’m not alone’ Yes, it makes you cry, but through the tears comes some kind of resolve – as it so often does in traditional songs (she sings:) ‘But I will climb that highest tree and rob that wild birds nest/ And I will fall without a fear into the arms of one who loves me the best.’ There’s that hope at the end of it.”

It was working with Huw Warren’s piano in folk music arrangements that opened her ears to wider musical possibilities, however:  “It’s coming up to 40 years (with Huw) actually, and I have worked with other jazz musicians. I love the way that jazz musicians seem to have no preconceptions about what a piece of music should be. So if I say ‘this is a traditional song but we’re going to do it our way’ then that’s fine with them , and if I want to sing a jazz standard I can do that as well. Once you’ve got a piano and someone who can play a piano like Huw Warren the world is definitely your oyster. It’s a magnificent instrument and I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful his playing is. He’s done so many different things. And then you have Iain Ballamy … they’re both so versatile – it’s extraordinary and a wonderful thing to be part of. I’m so lucky!”

“It’s how the three of us work together – I like the way that the songs come out. I’m sure people do end up in situations where they end up singing things that they aren’t entirely convinced about but with us it’s the ones that work that are the ones performed and that we all feel strongly about and I hope that’s how it comes over to the audience – it seems to.”
Having established Quercus to great acclaim, things were derailed dramatically in 2020. For June it was disastrous: “The last gig we did was five years ago in Cardiff and then COVID came along and spoiled the party. Spoiled everything, really. I had it twice and twice it’s eaten my voice, taken the top and the bottom (of my range) and that’s taken a long time to recover. And of course there were breathing problems, ears blocked … you name it. These things always hit you where you least need it, they play on anything that has a slight weakness.”

So does this return to live performance means she has recovered? “I hope so! One last foray … ? The trouble is, the older you get things do start to wear out. I don’t want to be singing when my voice isn’t up to it. Except to my dogs, of course, because they don’t mind. They just put their paws over their ears – ‘not that one again!’ We’ve got these four gigs and we’ll see how that works out – I will be 78 on New Year’s Eve so it’s a case of ‘Carpe Diem’ I think!”

Bristol may be fortunate to host one of those rare gigs but June says she has enjoyed coming to the city since the days of Clifton’s legendary Troubadour Club: “It would have been in about 1969-70 I first went there so that’s 55 years ago, isn’t it?”. She’s especially pleased to come back to St George’s, whose famed acoustic makes the most of her voice and the sensitive dynamics of a Quercus performance: “St George’s – I love it, I really do. I’ve done quite a few concerts there. Actually, I think it’s a special place.” And both folk and jazz enthusiasts would happily agree that June Tabor’s special voice deserves nothing less.

Quercus appear at St George’s Bristol on Thursday 27.