SHANGRI-LA (2002)
CLASSIC ROCK SOCIETY (August, 2002)
I would put good money on the fact that you could ask former Dada and Vinegar Joe front lady Elkie Brooks to sing anything and she'd make a good job of it.
Over the years she has sang the blues, has rocked, she has soul and has had the hits too. On this album, only available on the web, she again displays that versatility and ridicules those who say that age has anything to do with music - it hasn't.
Now in her fifties Elkie presses all the right buttons on this her first release in six years. She opens with two songs that show how well a soaring guitar works with her voice while, I believe, her Hebrew background comes through on the ethnic 'Eliyahu (Elijah the Prophet)' and the wonderfully percussive 'Avinu Malkenu (Our father, Our King)'.
The bluesy 'Set Me Free' incorporates neck tingling guitar and trumpet effect while Elkie adapts so easily to a change of pace and style. That is apparent on the jazzy and funky 'Never Known' too.
As with much of what Elkie has done over the years there is always plenty feeling and emotion, something she projects so well be it on record or live on stage.
Elkie and her music have matured ever so well over the years and it's good to hear her still in fine voice and also writing such quality songs with her husband, son and friends. She might not be everyone's thing
but she still is one of Britain's finest.
Martin Hudson
CLASSIC ROCK SOCIETY (November, 2003)
October saw these two new Elkie albums released on Classic Pictures. 'Trouble In Mind' is a more traditional jazz album, co-released with the great British jazzman Humphrey Lyttelton. This is not the first time she has worked with 'Humph' since she sang with his band many years ago.
More of what we are used to from Elkie though is found on 'Shangri-La', an album pumped full of songs where she sounds totally in control and at home. 'Morello' is a lyrically intriguing beginning before the marshal-arts loving lady takes the listener into the world of her Jewish roots on 'Eliyahu' and 'Avinu Malkenu'.
'Set Me Free' will please lovers of any style of music while the classic Billie Holiday song 'Strange Fruit' gets the Elkie treatment. She is a true professional who expects high standards and whether it be a bluesy song, a soul song, a classic or something more raw and rocky, she simply takes a hold of it and adds her own gloss and generally it comes out shining.
She had much success with 'Pearl's A Singer' and 'Lilac Wine' etc. but there is so much more here from one of the greatest voices of the past thirty plus years.
Martin Hudson
