Review: Alma Zygier at The Ellington Jazz Club

Alma Zygier at The Ellington Jazz Club
Sunday, May 11, 2025

As she walked on down the street

She was like a child staring at her feet

But when she passed the bar

And she heard the music play

She had to go in and sing

It had to be that way

Lady Day

Lou Reed’s ode to Billy Holiday captures what it’s like to see Alma Zygier perform. She has an innocent, waif-like stage presence, startled and scared, a bit like a deer in the headlights or a lost schoolgirl, but as soon as she opens her mouth and her rich, mesmerizing voice pours out, everyone within earshot is transported to a very special place. It seems like magic that two almost contradictory beings can inhabit the same body at the same time.

The analogy to Billy Holiday is doubly apt given that the legendary jazz/blues queen is one of four great singers Zygier’s voice invokes. Strains of Minnie Riperton, Bessie Smith and Canadian singer/songwriter Mary Margaret O’Hara also echo through her glorious singing style.

Zygier’s lightning visit to Perth last weekend allowed for two shows at The Ellington Jazz Club—just. As soon as her flight landed Satdy morn, she had to dash into Northbridge for her 1pm matinee, and there was just time once the albums had all been signed and sold at her sunset show Sunday to uber to Guildford for her flight back to Melbourne. No wonder she looked a bit wide-eyed and stunned when she came on stage—she must’ve been disoriented.

But then she opened her mouth.

Like many other jazz cantatrices, Zygier’s repertoire focuses on the classic American songbook, especially tunes from the 1920s and ’30s, with the occasional sixties hit thrown in to shake it up. Her renditions though are quite different from the usual Ellington fare. A little left field, they are grittier and a bit more relaxed.

Arranged by her father, Oz rock legend Willy Zygier, on album, they have an authentic 1920s jazz-age sound, á lá Paul Whiteman, Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington: muted trumpet, soaring clarinet, chopping guitar. On stage with her trio of Perth sidemen—Harry Mitchell (keys), Shane Pooley (double bass) and Pete Evans (kit)—the arrangements were more gentle and lilting. With Mitchell’s lyrical piano foregrounded in lieu of the horns, it was delightful bed on which to lay Zygier’s heartfelt lyrics.

To paraphrase Paul Kelly, she is one of those singers who completely embody a song.

She sounds and, with her sometimes pained expressions, looks like she has lived every word that she sings. This has a great impact on the audience. Looking around the room, women in particular were clearly affected. It was as though she had reached right down into their souls and given perfect expression to their deepest feelings. Little wonder the nearing full house absolutely loved it. At the end of the show, a long queue snaked through the room to buy her 2024 live album (vinyl and CD). You rarely see that at the Ellington, no matter how good the artist.

In another twist, a few of her classics were preluded by the long narratives most singers skip. These forsaken introductions, not only set the scene for the song, but allow for a build up of tension and anticipation before breaking into the more familiar ‘choruses,’ as the verses were traditionally known. Both Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust and Arlen/Harburg’s Over the Rainbow benefited from such delayed gratification.

Although it’s the first time Zygier had played with this ensemble, they seemed like they were made for each other. Mitchell, Pooley and Evans fell into a very comfortable and relaxed groove. Mitchell featured the most, but Pooley and Evans each had two sharp solos, while Evans’ brush work added a lovely languid feel to the set. With the occasional backing vox, it made for a very tight but effortless sound.

Other highlights included the opening, Andy Stroud’s Be My Husband, with its solo voice to clicking fingers, the laid back renditions of Jimmy Cox’s Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out and Joe Primrose’s St James Infirmary Blues, the dives and ascents of Betty Carter’s Red Top, reminiscent of Joni Mitchell’s Twisted, and, with its barks, woofs and howls, her delightful reinvention of Lieber and Stollers Hound Dog.

Of the more recent material, she completely embodied Leonard Cohen’s Bird On A Wire, sending shivers down several spines, and the second set encore written by her parents, Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier, Say Goodnight. Being Mother’s Day and missing her’s, Zygier dedicated this last song to all the mothers in the room.

Now that she’s had a first taste, Zygier intends to come back to Perth again. Here’s hoping she does so sooner rather than later. A mesmerising performer with a sweet and sultry voice, her work is to be sought out and savoured.

 IAN LILBURNE

Photos by Adrian Thomson