Printable CopyGIRL CRUSH
K-Tunes Lounge
Until 11 Mar 2017

Review by Talia Gaertner-Jones

Morgan Welch takes you on a top-tapping journey of pop songs that have been arranged to fit the jazz/cabaret style of a 1920s Jazz band.

Accompanied by Chris Gould on piano, Jimmy Meyer on drums, Jack Degenhart on saxophone and Dylan Kuerschner on bass, Welch belts and scats her way through a repertoire of pop songs to create meaningful art.

She kicks off the night with a jazzed-up version of “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea, leading to the comment from an audience member sitting near me of “I prefer that to the original” and this reviewer must agree. I could not fault a single number from the show.

The songs Welch had chosen consisted of pop songs by some of the biggest female pop performers in the past few years. Singers like Taylor Swift, Megan Trainer, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Sia and of course Beyoncé.

The biggest stand out on the night was Welch’s arrangement of “Bad Blood” by Taylor Swift and her scaling opening notes – incredible! Welch made mention of pop music being so much more than nudity in video clips and ‘doof doof’ music, but reminded the audience that these women are making a change and using their music as a platform to speak. Here she mentioned singers like Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus who is the most charitable performer of her time.

Finishing the show Welch performs “Halo” by Beyoncé (a singer who, shockingly, I have never been a fan of) but creates such a beautiful version which I would be happy to listen to over and over again.

Although the 15 minute break, after only a 20 minute set seemed a bit excessive, the rest of the night was a roll of continuous, swinging music.

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)