Carmel (born Carmel McCourt, 24 November 1958, Wrawby, Lincolnshire,
England) is a British female singer, her eponymous band Carmel uniting
bassist Jim Parris, and drummer Gerry Darby.
The band formed in
Manchester when two students, Carmel McCourt and Jim Parris got together
with drummer Gerry Darby (Parris' cousin). Their debut single, "Storm"
reached No. 1 in the UK independent chart and Carmel was signed
immediately to London Records. Their second album The Drum is Everything
(produced by Mike Thorne) drew some praise. Parris and Darby conjured
the effect of a full ensemble backing to McCourt's vocals, and
alternated between soulful ballads, gospel, blues and jazz. The
resulting singles "Bad Day" and "More, More, More" both went Top 25 in
the UK Singles Chart. The following album, The Falling (produced by
Brian Eno, Hugh Jones and David Motion) made Carmel moderately
successful in France, achieving gold disc status, as well as charting in
Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands. Carmel had a hit in France with
"J'oublierai ton nom", a duo with France's Johnny Hallyday. "Sally" the
first single lifted from the album sold 500,000 copies in France alone.
With the critical and commercial success awarded both The Falling and
the next album Everybody's Got A Little Soul, record producers were keen
to work with Carmel.
1989 saw the release of Set Me Free, with
Brian Eno and Pete Wingfield adding their touches to the material. A
five star review in Q describing the album as "incendiary".1990's 'best of' compilation, Collected, put the band's career
into perspective.
1992's Good News saw Carmel moving to East West
Records with Parris producing. In 1997 Ronnie Scotts provided the venue
to record their last album, Live at Ronnie Scotts, which was a
collection of their work and some previously unreleased material.
Live
performance has always been central to Carmel's work and they are
successful on the European touring circuit, and has sometimes found
greater appreciation on the continent than it has done in the UK. The
French christened McCourt the new Edith Piaf, and in
Italy she won the accolade of Best Jazz vocalist at the Messina
Festival.
During much of the 1990s the band members were living
between Barcelona, Paris and Manchester, and it was hard for them to
work together, so they pursued other musical projects. Parris created
the band Nzi Dada with Paris based multi media artist Xumo Nounjio, and
Carmel worked on various projects as a singer, writer and teacher.
The
start of the millennium saw them all back in their adopted hometown of
Manchester, but Darby decided he no longer wanted to continue. In 2002
Parris and McCourt undertook a tour playing the old material with a nine
piece band. Later they worked on material for a new album with drummer
Brice Wassy.
McCourt and Parris are currently working on new
pieces, one written alongside poet Sonia Hughes. They intend to perform
them as a duo with some sound treatments by new collaborator Jaydev
Mistry, plus filmwork by Adrian Ball.
@ @ @
OdpowiedzUsuń