Legendary vocalist Elaine Delmar has a new album, about to be released. It is her first in ten years, and has been in the making since the harrowing days of Covid. Recorded on Ubuntu Music, Speak Low is, at last, being released on 19 July. Feature by Lavender Sutton.

On the inside jacket of the CD, it says: A selection of my favourite songs, arranged by some of my wonderful colleagues and musical collaborators, past and present. ~Elaine

Starting with those in the present, her current band, Barry Green, Simon Thorpe and Jim Mullen are responsible for getting the ball rolling on this project. With so many arrangements of songs made especially for her, Delmar decided to curate a selection of her favourites, showcasing new takes on some of her most beloved memories through the last fifty-odd years. 

She had me ‘round for tea, and when we walked in the house, the stereo was already on, playing Nat King Cole. Surrounded by photographs and sheet music, and souvenirs from her travels, she regaled me with stories of travelling around the country singing in cabaret and working men’s clubs and her career in theatre, acting and singing in musical reviews like “Cowardy Custard” and “Bubbling Brown Sugar”. 

Her fascinating career in music has taken so many twists and turns (three years in Hollywood, a live-recorded album in Bulgaria…) but the best thing about Delmar is her dedication to a song. She chatted most enthusiastically about finding a song with lyrics that spoke to her, and sharing it with an audience in its true glory. 

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This is why Delmar does not really fancy herself a ‘jazz singer’ – more a jazz influenced singer. And why she stated that Lorenz Hart’s lyric in You’re Nearer touched her more than Ellington’s I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart ever could because “Ellington’s songs were not conceived as songs – they were instrumental first.”

Her song choices for this album are full of wonderful lyrics, of course, including one of Hart’s lyrics on Yours Sincerely. Not to mention, the classic Stephen Sondheim song, Send in the Clowns and a special new arrangement of Stars which features lyrics by the acclaimed Norma Winstone. 

Close Your Eyes, is a lovely bass and voice duet between Delmar and Thorpe with this mysterious relationship developing between Thorpe’s rich, low notes and Delmar’s hypnotising, almost smirking, voice. 

If You Love Me, a ballad originally written in French by Edith Piaf as ‘Hymne à l’amour’, sung here with accompaniment from Jim Mullen, carries the weight of the original feeling of heartbreak; Piaf wrote the song after the love of her life Marcel Cerdan was killed in a plane crash. 

In a 2021 London Jazz News interview of Delmar for International Women’s Day by the much-missed Tina May (link below), she spoke about learning how to “inhabit a song”. From chatting with her now, it is evident that she has mastered this skill. Her ability to convey the emotions and the intention of each lyric as well as the harmonic movement by manipulating her voice is uncanny.

She’s included songs arranged by her previous band members, Pat Smythe and Brian Dee and even shares a new, not been recorded, arrangement on Tea for Two. With a few other treasures to be discovered, Delmar’s band members were right. It was about time she recorded some of these songs to capture her brilliance for generations ahead.

LINKS: Buy / Pre-Order Speak Low from Presto Music
Tina May’s 2021 interview with Elaine Delmar: PART ONE / PART TWO
Live review from LJF 2023