MUSIC

Smith & Mighty, Jukes, Tamco… Tammy Payne’s vocals have graced more than a few fine recordings in their time. Tony Benjamin tunes in to the latest.

There’s something about the name – Tamco - that suggests that this time Tammy Payne means business, though in fact she’s been a successful as a singer and drummer since her teens. She had a string of dance music hits in the 90s, notably on Gilles Petersen’s Talkin’ Loud label, and a fruitful songwriting collaboration with Smith & Mighty followed. There was also her solo singer-songwriter project Jukes whose 2008 debut album ‘We Might Disappear’ caused a critical flurry but talking to her there’s no doubting her special enthusiasm for Tamco.

Given her own songwriting credentials, it’s a surprise that the band’s just-released album ‘Don’t Think Twice’ is a set of cover versions. Tammy explains: “For a couple of years now I’ve wanted to do a jazz album but didn’t know how to approach it. I just wasn’t attracted to the jazz standards – I love singing them but wanted to find songs I could really relate to. In the end I just started to pick the songs I really like, singing them and seeing what moved me. The ones that stuck all had a common theme about the darker side of relationships.” It’s a rich collection stretching back to the 50s voodoo of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s ‘I Put A Spell On You’ through the dark 60s hymns of Jacques Brel, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan to the ache of Elvis Costello’s ‘I Want You’ and slipping in a heart-rending reading of Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’ on the way.

Finding a band proved surprisingly easy. Tammy wanted musicians who combined the skills of jazz with an insight into other musical styles. She’d been jamming with jazz and rock guitar maverick Neil Smith when Totterdown neighbour (and Phantom Limb keyboard player) Dan Moore had sat in. Meanwhile, Tammy’s partner Jim Barr had been working with London drummer Dylan ‘Blockhead’ Howe on some Get The Blessing gigs. It was a line-up that came together in Tammy’s imagination: “I thought ‘Here’s the band!’ – everybody has played a hell of a lot of different music with commitment and they’re really interested in whatever they do. And they all wanted to do this thing. I had a couple of sessions with Jim and Neil trying out different ‘feels’ for the songs. I had some ideas and we modified them and then we had an afternoon with Dan and Dylan and just pressed ‘record’. Everything on the album is live – one take – and it just flowed on the day. When we listened back we were all really stunned. Even though we hadn’t spent weeks working on it or doing loads of overdubs, it all hung together. It gave the project such confidence.”

It is indeed a powerful record, with even the over-familiar likes of ‘Jolene’ given a troubling and sympathetic reading amid a restrained psychedelic swirl of post-jazz musicianship. Since its successful launch at London’s Vortex jazz club, the album has had glowing reviews in Mojo, The Guardian and Independent on Sunday, and Tammy has heard that Jamie Cullum has a copy and likes it greatly “although he hasn’t played it (on air) yet!” The band are already looking to the festival season next year and prospects are good. Naturally, however, Tammy has ideas about how the project will move on, including developing original material rather than more covers. “It seems the right thing to do. I love the sound of this band and I’ve already got some songs that I want to hear how they play. It is a bit worrying when you’ve been doing such powerful songs but I never wanted to keep it as a covers band and I’m really excited about moving on to original material.”

‘DON’T THINK TWICE’ IS OUT NOW ON EDITION RECORDS. SEE WWW.EDITIONRECORDS.COM/ARTISTS/TAMCO/ FFI.
 

Copyright Tony Benjamin 2010

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