CD Review: Marianne McGregor, Make Believe

Orcadian, multi-award-winning vocalist Marianne McGregor is one of the UK jazz scene’s most talented performers, with her third album Make Believe, released digitally on 20^th June, confirming that her star is indeed in ascendency. Her previous albums Good Morning Warning and Standards were both well received in 2020. Unsurprisingly, a hugely enthusiastic response from a full-house audience greeted Make Believe’s launch at The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Green Room, two days post album release.

Hailing from Orkney, Marianne has lived in Glasgow for some years and is one of the hardest working musicians on the Scottish live jazz scene, where she is accompanied by some of our finest musicians. On Make Believe Marianne is supported by several of these, including keyboardist Paul Harrison, saxophonist/ flautist Brian Molley, bassist Mario Caribe and drummer Max Popp.

Well-paced, the album consists of eleven tracks, a sense of growing confidence seeming to evolve, with the title track providing a big, spectacular even, ending. The stroppy Serpent injects some fun, indeed all the tracks are a delight, however this listener found the slower tempo tracks especially affecting, perhaps not least the very moving Then It Went Away.

The appeal of Marianne’s songs is wide, and although at gigs she often includes accomplished interpretations of jazz Standards, in this album all tracks are self-penned. Her voice has a velvety quality that brims with emotion yet is powerful and has been compared to Amy Winehouse’s, hence it floats easily over the other instruments in the band. As if this wasn’t enough, Marianne is an enthusiastic and successful vocal improvisor.

Meanwhile the lyrics speak of resiliency in life and lessons learned through relationships, with some extremely hummable melodies many of which are true ear worms.

So, if you feel in the mood for some arrestingly attractive, original jazz from Scotland, Make Believe is a great place to start. One anticipates that a significant talent such as Marianne’s will very soon be more frequently enjoyed far beyond the borders of Scotland and the UK.