After three years away from the microphone, Adelaide jazz icon Catherine Lambert makes her comeback at the Brisbane International Jazz Festival in June.
“The past couple of years or so I’ve been doing very few gigs because I’ve had this icky health issue and it’s one of the reasons I haven’t been up to Brisbane for a while,” Catherine explains.
“It’s an autoimmune condition called spondylitis; it’s a cousin to Crohn’s but it goes to the knees. It’s been really problematic as far as standing for long periods of time.”
During her medical hiatus, Catherine spread her wings as a visual artist. After hearing of attempts at Paris University to ban the burka on campus, she produced a series of paintings showing iconic women from throughout history wearing burkas. “The idea was to take iconic women from over the past 2,000 years who were highly successful but were only recognisable by their iconic clothing, posture or location.
“I’ve got everyone from Catherine The Great to Serena Williams… it was to say, these cats can wear whatever they want and if they choose to put the niqab on top of that, then so be it.”
Having made her initial return to live performance this past Australia Day, Catherine is ready to throw off the shackles of illness and get back in the swing on a full-time basis. In June, Catherine will perform with her band at the Brisbane Jazz Club, as part of the Brisbane International Jazz Festival.
To say she is enthusiastic may be something of an understatement. “I swear to God I could sing anything right now,” she says excitedly, “my voice is pristine. Basically because now we’ve got a handle on this condition, thanks to a brilliant rheumatologist and another treatment I’m having on my knees, I’m going to be in pretty good shape for Brisbane, so you can imagine how excited I am about that.
“I have all these songs that are busting to come out so I reckon June 10 is going to be more like Mach 2. I’m wondering if maybe the audience should wear appropriate clothing for the forces that will be unveiled,” she laughs. “Enter at your own risk!”
As part of her return, Catherine is also recording a new album she hopes to release close to the end of this year both on CD and vinyl. “I’m in pre-production for a new album called ‘Songs Without A Platform’ which will be coming out in November,” she says. “I’m doing it with the Jason Hammond Trio who are just stellar players down here in Adelaide. “
The reason it's called ‘Songs Without A Platform’ is because there are some absolutely beautiful songs, some of which I’ll be doing in Brisbane, that I don’t have a platform for. They’re not jazz songs, they’re not pop songs, they’re not rock & roll songs, they’re just beautiful songs and there’s nowhere you can perform them.”
As well as playing her hits and new material, Catherine says she’s more than happy to cater to crowd requests. “I like playing the songs people want to hear; call me a fool but I like to please the crowd. If everyone wants to hear ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ then damn it, we’ll do ‘Fly Me To The Moon’!
“We’ll do a really wonderful take of it with joy in our hearts because I love it,” she says. “I love the way it makes people feel, seeing the smiles on their faces and relating to the audience.”
