Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do
An emerging voice on the Scottish jazz scene celebrates the female titans of torch songs.
Fresh from a successful Edinburgh Festival Fringe run of Good Morning, Billie!, celebrating the work of jazz icon Billie Holiday, singer and award-winning cabaret performer Cat Loud sets her sights on exploring the historically female-led sub-genre of jazz Holiday belongs to, and the other vibrant women alongside her who sang of heartbreak and pain. “The Fringe show was in the morning, and I thought it would be a struggle in terms of getting the atmosphere right,” she explains, “because Holiday’s music belongs in smokey underground bars! But somehow it worked, and it was a real pleasure to sing these songs every day.”
Torch Songs is very much a sister show, and a more intimate exploration of music sung by women that exposes vulnerability and longing. “Torch songs are songs that talk about matters of the heart and heartbreak. Nina Simone’s version of You Don’t Know What Love Is and Holiday’s Good Morning, Heartache are so beautiful, which is all you need to enjoy them,” muses Cat “but I am drawn to them because they seem to explain my feelings better than I could.”
The show also deepens Loud’s long-held love and admiration for Holiday as a musician and as a much-mythologised historical figure, and gives Cat a chance to get into more detail about the more difficult, uncomfortable aspects of these singers’ lives. “I think too often, the tragedy of her life can overshadow her extraordinary musicianship, and strength as a person. There are so many photographs of her laughing and having a great time. It makes the sadness in the songs so much more authentic somehow; she had swings and roundabouts in life like everyone else, but just chose to sing about the low points and make herself vulnerable to the world, forever.”
Torch Songs is at Theatre Royal Dumfries on Friday 19th October.
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram: @ThatCatLoud
WINNER: VAULT Festival Origins Award for Outstanding New Work, 2018
★★★★★
Broadway Baby | West End Wilma | TV Bomb | Breaking the Fourth Wall | Culture By Night | North East Theatre Guide
★★★★
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"Perfect night cap… Stunning!" Graham Norton
"Best thing I've seen at the fringe so far this year, funny and a great voice." Alan Davies
“You’re left hungry for more.” Fest
“Cat’s singing is spectacular, effortless and moving… delivered with charisma and great energy.“ The Play’s The Thing
“A brand of dusky torch singing which stuns the room into silence.“ The List
