Music / soul
Review: Mica Paris, The Fleece
It’s no surprise that Mica Paris is still in the music industry 30 years after she first started. Judging by her silky voice during the intimate Fleece gig tonight, she has just got better with age.
Often described as the UK Queen of soul, Mica radiates sunshine when she comes onto the stage and greets the packed crowd: “Bristol you look good man!” You can’t help but smile when you see her, the aura is infectious and her voice reaches stunning ranges.
Going straight into Too Darn Hot, the four musicians on stage with Mica are the perfect accompaniment. Her latest album Mica Sings Ella pays tribute to Ella Fitzgerald’s 100th birthday and pays homage to the icon. Mica states: “Ella is the song of our life. A lot of the greats died before they were 40, but Ella lived well into her 70s. She was wonderful, my kind of girl; she performed different styles of music and wasn’t afraid to try new things.”
is needed now More than ever
Mica is quite the show-woman, and when it comes to audience participation, she is at the top of her game. She really does have a soft spot for our wonderfully, diverse musical city and constantly makes references: “Bristol is the coolest town outside of London, we did have our time in London (the 90s) but I’ve always loved it here. You have Massive Attack, it’s a beautiful part of the world.”
Throughout her set, she’s talking, laughing, dancing, pointing, shouting and requesting us to get involved and party; like a ball of constant enthusiasm.
An impressive back catalogue of Ella hits are in full-flow, including Love For Sale, They Can’t Take That Away From Me, Summertime, I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good), Hallelujah I Love Him So – and we even get a Beatles cover which Ella tackled in Can’t Buy Me Love. But the song that really raises the roof is Everytime We Say Goodbye. However, even though these are all Ella tracks, Mica puts her own individual, feisty stamp on them all.
Mica makes a wonderful point that in history, throughout time, whenever the world is looking bad and you can’t get away from the rubbish – there’s always been music and art to help. This is so true and when she asks all of us to absorb her sound, forget about the world for a while and stay within the four walls of the venue – the sense of happiness that descends on the audience is so obvious that you can almost taste it.
She’s right – music is the answer and Mica manages to take us all to a special place which is full of zen.
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