Todd Gordon Quartet: Tribute to Tony Bennett

with special guest from Mongolia: Enkharjal Erkhembayar

Todd Gordon, vocal
Enkhjargal Erkhembayar, vocal
David Patrick, piano
Martin Zenker, bass
Ole Seimetz, drums

Todd Gordon has established himself as “one of Britain’s most popular singers and entertainers” (Scottish Television). An avid Beatles fan until the age of eleven, his musical horizons were broadened when he first heard a Frank Sinatra album. From that moment, he collected almost every recording by Ol’ Blue Eyes and, from there, his interest expanded to jazz and swing, encompassing numerous other renowned singers and instrumentalists.

Further inspiration came in 1975 when he met Ella Fitzgerald prior to one of her shows and then, during the concert, she invited him on stage and sang specially to him. A full account has been featured on the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation site – click here to read it.

Since then, Gordon has been fortunate enough to meet many more of his idols – including Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Count Basie, Woody Herman, George Shearing and Tony Bennett, motivating him to immerse himself in the Great American Songbook genre.

“Todd strips away all the cabaret and show biz veneer and gets to the very heart of the lyrics of the American Songbook” – David Jones, London Jazz Festival

Gordon’s interest in music and singing was passionate, yet always private. But in 2000, he took part in a week-long vocal jazz workshop and that changed everything. His stage debut came in 2001 at Scotland’s top jazz club and from that moment on, as the cliché goes, he’s never looked back. In 2003, aged 44, he was booked to open for Dionne Warwick during her UK tour, which prompted him to give up his day job organisng exhibitions. Since then, Gordon has performed frequently at Britain’s top jazz venues, including The Pizza Express Jazz Room, The 606 in Chelsea and the world- renowned Ronnie Scott’s. He’s also performed at The Plaza and The Algonquin hotels in New York – where he even did a duet with actor Christopher Walken, singing “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.”

He also features regularly at major jazz fesBvals and concerts. In fact, he was the first Scottish male jazz singer to be booked for the London Jazz Festival, with his first appearance at the prestigious Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

“I can’t think of a current American singer who sings better in this swing-era style” – James Gavin, acclaimed US journalist and author of the definitive biographies on Chet Baker, Lena Horne and Peggy Lee

Todd’s audiences range from intimate jazz clubs to large-scale shows (regularly compèring and performing at “Jazz on a Summer’s Day” against the backdrop of Edinburgh Castle – Britain’s biggest jazz event with an audience of 20,000-plus). He was also one of four nominees for a national music award alongside Texas and Annie Lennox.

Gordon works with the very best British musicians (Alan Barnes, Alec Dankworth, Steve Brown etc) and has also performed with top US players including Jay Leonhart, Ted Rosenthal, Joe Cohn and Butch Miles. He’s also joined forces for concerts with Curtis Stigers, Barb Jungr, Ian Shaw, Claire Martin, Janet Seidel, Clare Teal, James Tormé and, most frequently, Jacqui Dankworth.

“Doing it his way, Sinatra’s ghost lives on in the work of one of his most polished admirers” – Clive Davis, The Times

He has released four albums with Ian Shaw in the producer’s chair: Love’s Illusions, Ballads from The Midnight Hotel (with Guy Barker and featuring a duet with Jacqui Dankworth), and Moon River to The Days of Wine and Roses – an album celebrating the work of the legendary American Songbook lyricist Johnny Mercer, with the acclaimed Mel Tormé pianist, John Colianni.

Two more recent releases have followed: a big band swing album with the chart-topping Royal Air Force Squadronaires with several duets with guest singers (Clare Teal, Eddi Reader, Carol Kidd, Janet Seidel, etc) and Love dot com – an album Gordon recorded in Seoul after one of his tracks was used as the theme song in a top-rating Korean TV drama series.

“Gordon has made the great American songbook his own” – The Guardian

Enkhjargal Erkhembayar
Mongolia is where past and present meet, as do tradition and modernity. The result is a culture that is not only special, it’s unique. Through her singing, the young musician Enkhjargal Erkhembayar allows her audiences to experience this convergence in a way that is nothing short of sublime. She has mastered the traditional female part in throat singing – the “long song” – as well as the jazz idiom. Thanks to her tender, almost girl-like voice, which is also immediate and commanding, she sings works from more recent genres such as jazz and blues, and every note recalls the expansive, melancholic melodies of her nomadic ancestors. She thus transcends standard preconceptions and world-music clichés, using her inimitable style to create sounds that are new and enchanting.

Enkhjargal was born in Ulaanbaatar in 1991. She completed her training as a music educator before dedicating herself fully to her career as a musician, becoming the first student enrolled at the Goethe Music Lab Ulan Bator (GMUB). In 2015, she recorded her first CD in Munich, together with the internationally peripatetic bass player Martin Zenker, who took the opportunity to create new arrangements of existing Mongolian works. (The CD will be released shortly.) That same year she was invited by the Goethe-Institut Munich to travel to Europe, where she was accompanied during her concerts by jazz greats such as Zenker, drumming legend Billy Hart, saxophone player Johannes Enders and pianist Paul Kirby. In 2016, with financial support from the Goethe-Institut and the German Foreign Office, Zenker and Gerlee Tsegmid-Rösch organised concerts in Frankfurt am Main, during which the young singer performed with Zenker himself, and with Tony Lakatos and Peter Raidler.