In Secondary School as part of my music class I was introduced to ‘Round Midnight – Composition by Cootie Williams and Thelonious Monk.
I instantly became connected to the soul and emotions in the lyrics. Adding the piano accompaniment just added another level, it was full of blues and even more soul.
When I finally listened to the Jazz version, I knew I had just experienced something I had not felt before. I finally understood the meaning of ‘feeling the blues’!
Due to the music taste of my step family as well, I started to to hear more from the like of Charles Mingus, Billie Holiday, Miles Davies & Etta James etc. So much so, we had three cats called Mingus, Billie & Sisqo – you can guess which cat I named!!
Fast forward 15 years, during my vocal lessons, I was trying to find a song that was full of emotion with beautiful lyrics that I could gift as a wedding present. I remembered At Last, and wanted to be able to perform this if I could, so I rewrote some of the lyrics to reflect this.
Etta James has a voice that is full of raw emotion and has the ability to emote these feelings directly into your soul through her music. I hoped my version would also be able to provide similar levels of emotions.
Please watch on YouTube to see my version.
I hope you like it ❤️??