Emma Smith: ‘Bitter Orange’

With her tremendous, joyous and powerful voice, Emma Smith bombards you delightfully until she knocks you sideways with a disarming ballad. On ‘Bitter Orange’, she demands our full attention with a sweet and colourful set of jazz arrangements.

Bitter Orange begins with a blisteringly brief introduction to Smith’s voice and style, if you need one, with Hey World, Here I am, rapidly followed by I’m The Greatest Star. Smith knows what she’s doing with curation as much as with singing, all beautifully arranged and produced by Jamie Safir.

The band allows Smith to shine whether she’s staking her place on these opening tracks or moving on to the comedy of Frim Fram Sauce as she shares the musical stage: Jamie Safir (piano), Conor Chaplin (double bass), and Luke Tomlinson (drums).

Throughout this album, Smith‘s personality shines through musically and lyrically in the choice of tracks that pay to homage to her vocal inspirations - there‘s more than a touch of Julie London, Ella Fitzgerald and the marvellous Dame Cleo Laine, who we sadly lost this month. Just listen to her wonderful version of Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.

Smith appeared on Harmonious World in 2022 to discuss her debut album - Meshuga Baby and Bitter Orange is a more than satisfying follow-up. This collection welcomes her to the ultra-hip US based LA Reserve Records, with this album launch marking the label’s first British signing. The Noel Coward classic London Pride allows her to pay tribute to her home, while embracing all that the United States has to offer.

Where Smith and long-time collaborator Safir come into their own is the original composition What Took You So Long?: lyrically humorous and a musical tip of the hat to the great songwriters. I‘ve heard Smith sing with big bands and on several occasions performing songs written by the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO) founder Bill Ashton and she does like to tell a story.

Emma Smith has a great story to tell in both the US and the UK - the only British finalist in the 2023 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition and winning the 2024 Parliamentary Jazz Vocalist of the Year. Our story actually began more than 40 years ago when her grandfather (trombonist Chris Smith) suggested I give NYJO a try and I then met her father (trumpeter Chris Smith). It‘s a small musical world.

You can catch Emma Smith‘s London launch of Bitter Orange across four shows at Ronnie Scott’s on 6 and 7 August.

Emma is justifiably confident in releasing this collection into the world: “This album is my space to play with the juxtaposition of bitter and sweet, humour and heartbreak. There’s camp ridiculousness and raw vulnerability - and somehow, all of that is me. Bitter Orange is an intimate snapshot of my inner world - the glamour and the mess of a self-making woman, trying to be heard and make an impact in the world today, with a sound from yesterday.“