www.christinetobin.org

Tickets €20, available from www.eventbrite.ie

A Thousand Kisses Deep is a beautiful re-working of eleven Leonard Cohen songs alongside some choice originals and is singer Christine Tobin's salute to the legendary Canadian singer, songwriter and poet. In her own songwriting, Tobin specializes in idiosyncratic, highly musical poetic vignettes with a strong sense of story, so it's no surprise she weaves such magic with the profound, sensual songs of Cohen. The songs chosen are from his early 1960s albums through to his 2001 release ‘Ten New Songs’. She was first drawn to Cohen at the age of ten after hearing ‘You Know Who I Am’ on the classic CBS vinyl sampler ‘Fill Your Head with Rock’ which belonged to her eldest sister. The live show of ‘A Thousand Kisses Deep’ won a prestigious Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the album received rave reviews. (see below) 

Having been an integral part of both the New York City and London scenes for many years, Christine Tobin is now based in Northwest Roscommon. Her unique, rich sound was described by The Guardian as ‘Tobin’s 24 carat voice’. Her expressive range acknowledges finely acquired jazz, folk and twentieth century European art song influences. She can be junkyard blues philosopher, snappy beat seductress, a conduit for exquisite zen-like harmonies, or reflective Americana. MOJO Music Magazine said of her “Christine Tobin really transcends glib genre-fiction…..everything is shot through with an unmistakable refinement, free-spirited earthiness and giddy romanticism, this singer-songwriter is in a field of one". Her live show ‘A Thousand Kisses Deep’ won a prestigious ‘Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2012 she won a BASCA British Composer Award and in 2014 she was awarded “Jazz Vocalist of the Year” at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Earlier in her career Christine won “Best Vocalist” at the BBC Jazz Awards.

Christine Tobin will be performing with her longterm partner & collaborator guitarist Phil Robson, and Dan Bodwell double bass 

Phil Robson is a multi-award-winning guitarist & composer, originally from the UK who relocated to New York City in 2015 for five years and is currently based in Ireland. He has led bands featuring jazz legends such as David Liebman, Mark Turner, Billy Hart, James Genus, Marc Copland & many more as well as working as a sideman with Kenny Wheeler, Barbra Streisand, Steve Lacy, Charles Earland, Donny McCaslin, Django Bates, The BBC Big Band, Ingrid Jenson, Phil Woods, Mike Gibbs, Bob Brookmeyer, Steve Wilson and a hugely diverse spectrum of internationally renowned artists. In Europe he is renowned as the co-leader of the cult UK band ‘Partisans’ with saxophonist Julian Siegel which ran for 23 years as well as for his work with his partner, the great singer/songwriter Christine Tobin. In New York he is best known for his collaboration with the master saxophonist/composer Jed Levy. He's also a 'Whirlwind Recordings’ and ‘Lyte Records’ recording artist with many highly acclaimed albums who performs at major venues and festivals around the world. www.philrobson.net

Daniel Bodwell studied classical double bass at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, and jazz double bass at the Hochschule für Künste, Bremen. He is a founder member of the New York based Micah Gaugh Trio with Kevin Shea. He currently performs with Mary Coughlan, the Nigel Mooney Quartet, the Francesco Turrisi Trio, Julie Feeney, Sue Rynhart, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra, the Quiet Music Ensemble and the Crash Ensemble. Recent recordings include Nigel Mooney's 'The Bohemian Mooney', Nina Hynes' 'Goldmine', Linley Hamilton's 'Taylor Made', Ian Wilson's 'Double Trio', Francesco Turrisi's 'Si Dolce e il Tormento', David Lyttle's 'True Story', Vyvienne Long's 'Caterpillar Sarabande', the Dubliners '40th Anniversary', and Donnacha Dennehy's 'That the Night Come' featuring Dawn Upshaw.
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The reviews………

Press praise for A Thousand Kisses Deep
 
"Christine Tobin is inspiring on her own material. But she is in a class of her own singing Leonard Cohen. Her new version of “Everybody Knows” is stunning… Gorgeous, affecting and deeply human.” The Guardian 

“Great timing is a gift given to few and one that Tobin possesses, along with an exciting tendency to take the darker path.”
  The Times

“The Voice is a killer.” fRoots 

"She's got one of those voices that can move from pure, pastoral-edged folk whimsy to big angry blues mama in a single phrase; from world-weary interpreter of show tunes to howling rock diva within a single note.”  Time Out
  
Jazzwise Magazine **** Recommended
….there’s something inherently right when vocalist Christine Tobin sings Leonard Cohen. Christine’s ear for lyrical detail, coupled with her sensitivity to the singular mood of each song, combines to magical effect. From the alluring groove of ‘Tower of Song’, and the powerful imagery of ‘Story of Isaac’, to the incredibly moving ‘Anthem’ and the enigmatic ‘You Know Who I Am’, these are interpretations that shimmer with beauty and insight.
 
‘A wholly absorbing and often downright ravishing concert’. 
LondonJazz, London Jazz Festival, Southbank Centre
 
BBC Music Magazine (5 star review) *****
Jazz and poetry have often had strong links and vocalist Christine Tobin has struck gold with this album that focuses on the works of Canadian poet and folk hero Leonard Cohen. Tobin’s last disc set the work of WB Yeats, a poet who was also a key influence on Cohen. And for her latest, she tackles tunes from across Cohen’s long career including his famous ‘Suzanne’. She uses her own distinctive jazz style, unlocking the subtleties of Cohen’s incisive observations and moods. This works well for those who are both familiar, or less so, with his output. Whether it’s the gentle accordion of Huw Warren, the resonant bass of Dave Whitford, or the one-track addition of pianist Gwilym Simcock, the band enables Tobin to re-define Cohen’s tunes with a razor-sharp clarity. Like the best poetry, this album leaves a long lasting impression. 
 
 
LondonJazz
All the songs benefit from the breathing space built into this production. They are not so much jazzed up, perhaps as jazzed down…every word is heard to best effect. Tobin always finding exactly the right emphasis and inflection to bring out points of the lyric that you might not notice...There are music touches to relish in each track….Overall, though it is the blend of Tobin’s lustrous dark voice with tart, often brooding words that creates that sense of rightness, that these songs might have been written with this performer in mind, because her mind reads them so sympathetically. Tobin has some pretty good lyrics of her own, but right now she is on a roll with essays in intelligent interpretation. Her vocal artistry here brings out the qualities of Cohen’s words better than anyone else. Jon Turney
 
The Independent ****
It seems unthinkable now, but Leonard Cohen was considered a spent force by the mid-1980s when an album of his songs by a female singer, Jennifer Warnes, began his renaissance. Now, Cohen is among the first faces you’d carve on a rock Mount Rushmore, and female singers continue to find new depths in his work. Irishwoman Christine Tobin leads a nimble, mostly acoustic jazz quartet with a playfulness that doesn’t misplace Cohen’s knowing sadness. Softly pulsing stand-up bass and sensual squeezes of accordion shadow the dark political humour of “Everybody Knows”’, while “Anthem” is taken as a slow-burning torch song. “Take This Waltz”, its layers of European bohemian regret so kindly dissected the scalpel hardly hurts, catches Cohen’s art at its most humane.
 

All About Jazz *****
A Thousand Kisses Deep brings together Christine Tobin's voice, Leonard Cohen's songs, a bunch of Premier League musicians and superb arrangements......Faced with such beautiful interpretations of Cohen's songs, it's important to remember that Tobin is also a talented and original songwriter herself. That talent may well be one reason why she's such as great interpreter of others' work: she understands the process of creating a lyric, of crafting a tune, she shares an awareness of just how personal that process can be. A Thousand Kisses Deep is quite simply a marvellous collection of Cohen songs.