I just read in the latest London Jazz News the sad news of Alison Bentley's recent passing after a long illness. Alison was a singer/singing teacher and a writer/reviewer for the LJN.
Although I never met Alison, and never had any direct contact with her, she has been present in my life since 2012 through 4 wonderfully written reviews of my albums, the last one barely 6 months ago, in February.
Alison really listened to each and every song, every musician, every detail of the recordings, and I recall the surprise and delight of the sound engineer of one of the recordings when he read a passage of Alison's review back in 2012 pointing to "...some subliminal electronic treatment on the vocals...". He said to me "Now, there's a critic who knows her stuff. She really listened to it!" I only understood the actual treatment she referred to, after reading her text! Each one of the reviews that she wrote of my work, was a lesson to me.
In an interview published by LJN in 2019, Alison said "I’m happy just to keep gigging, and happy if people want to read what I write." I, for one, will definitely miss reading her incredibly well written reviews on LJN and learning from her. Her texts always led me to going farther and discovering more about the subjects and artists she covered. So long, Alison...
2012 Mulheres
2012 Menescantando
2016 3Mundus
2023 Everyday a Little Love
INTERVIEW FOR #IWD2019: Alison Bentley, jazz singer, teacher and writer