Jazz / Lyhra album launch. At The Jazz Haus Canberra, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, August 9. Reviewed by NICK HORN.

Lyhra demonstrated the sheer swinging joy of close harmony jazz singing in front of a sold-out audience in launching their first album, Live at Church Street Studios, another outstanding contribution to the Eric Ajaye/TAC Jazz Haus concert series.

The three women vocalists (Trish Delaney-Brown, Briana Cowlishaw and Sam Walton) guided us through their new album with additional numbers, mixing stylish originals with lively and sometimes surprising interpretations from the jazz and contemporary playbook.

The trio was strongly supported throughout, with insouciant panache, by Charlie Meadows (guitar), Duncan Brown (bass) and Nic Cecire (drums).

The vocal technique of the singers, individually and in consort, was of the highest order. As mentioned in a Q&A after the show, the broad pitch and tonal range of each of their voices allowed great flexibility in arrangement, and a gorgeous blend in harmony and unison alike.

It was a pleasure to listen to singing that was so seemingly effortless, unforced and cleanly articulated (the trio’s scat singing was a feature throughout) – yet always tightly in the groove. It took a few songs to get the overall mix between the vocalists and band right, but such quibbles were soon forgotten as those voices blended and soared.

For much of the evening, Lyhra created a party mood with Andrews Sisters harmonies (Shoo-shoo baby) inflected with a Pointer Sister contemporaneity. 

Highlights were Walton’s Shaking It Up with Tay Tay while shaking her own tail feather, the trio’s Walk Like An Egyptian (from the Bangles via the Puppini Sisters) and stylish takes on Aretha’s Daydreaming, and, in a bravura encore, Joni’s Drycleaner from Des Moines.

The second set kicked off with a charming surprise. The participants from an afternoon workshop led by the trio were invited on stage for Delaney-Brown’s Dum Spiro Spero (While I breathe I hope) and Jacob Collier’s Little Blue (led by Walton). Dum Spiro Spero was particularly effective in this setting: the trio’s solo voices weaving in and out with an ostinato backing from three choral groups. Quite an achievement, with just a few hours preparation!

Perhaps it was the quieter moments that resonated most. In Walton’s Exhale, from the group’s recent EP, the trio created a surging ocean soundscape, with the rapt audience unable to give in to the demands of the song title until the last note had died.

The stripped-back Bloom was also very moving, led with sensitivity by the song’s composer Cowlishaw, with just Meadows’ minimalist Fender guitar accompanying the singers. (Meadows’ solo breaks throughout the concert were a delight.) 

Delaney-Brown’s duet with her husband Brown, performing Ani de Franco’s Overlap (via Katie Noonan) stood out in an evening of highlights.

In a performance of quiet intensity, the singer turned and sang the powerful lyric directly to her partner, who responded with elegant, simple melodic lines on bass guitar – yearning for connection, and not done looking yet.