Jamsheed Master
You'd Never Know (2008)

Unashamedly camp, deathly serious and deeply loving in turns, UK pianist and singer Jamsheed Master draws together a collection of new swing, showtunes and jazz standards.

“Sloppy cards and big red roses, Judy Garland matinees with flowing gowns and  endless ballroom dancing.” The opening line of ‘Old School Lover Boy’ sums up this album perfectly.

Since his first professional engagement as a restaurant pianist at 14, Jamsheed Master spent years perfecting the craft of playing by ear before classical training and a composition degree. First attracted to the piano by his mother, also a by-ear player, and early Liberace recordings, his musical influences are vastly varied, from musical theatre, opera, pure jazz and classical to swing, Latin, pop and ‘60s British soul: Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black, Petula Clark (with whom he shares the strange accolade of having first performed in the foyer of Bentalls department store in London). In 2009, The Stage newspaper described his voice “as smooth as Bublé, yet defiant like early Streisand.”

But as you might expect, it’s Jamsheed’s piano playing that really drives this album. With the exception of ‘Some Sunday Morning’ which is solely percussion and voice, the piano has the most to say. Drifting between the jazz and show-tune camps, ‘Hushabye Mountain’ is a cleverly orchestrated surprise and contrasts steeply with the honest simplicity of the instantly recognisable ‘Misty’. Then like a gust of fresh air,  ‘The Trolley Song’ pounds you with the stuff that love at first sight is made of.

Penned by Jamsheed on a grey afternoon on an English beach, the song that gives the album its name presents a blissfully domestic picture of comfortable, old fashioned love, a topic long overlooked by songwriters. Finally the voice gives way to a rich piano and full orchestra interpretation of the best known melody of the last century, ‘Comme d’habitude’ perhaps better known as ‘My Way.’

Performed and produced single handed by Jamsheed Master, You’d Never Know finds shelf space somewhere between jazz and musicals and maintains a strong musicality and an unabashed self-awareness throughout, making his music popular with a wide range of audiences: A collection of honestly self-aware songs that each tell their own story.

Track list:

    1 Old School Lover Boy
    2 The Way You Look Tonight
    3 Some Sunday Morning
    4 Embraceable You
    5 Hushabye Mountain
    6 Misty
    7 The Trolley Song
    8 You'd Never Know
    9 Comme d'habitude