Review: Jean Munro @ The Yard Club

Written by Enniv Zarf
Second Life Indie Music Review
Jean Munro's Myspace
The Yard Club

I stuck around The Yard Club for Jean Munro cause I actually have heard her a long time ago hearing her perform. I thought I'd review her too.

Well Jean is a wonderful singer/pianist. She performs both Jazz and Classic tunes as well as contemporary songs too. In Real Life, she is a music director, music teacher and much more.

Today at the Yard Club she started with some great jazz tunes, one of which is among my favorites: Gershwin's Summertime. And she did a fantastic job with the song.

She's got a wonderful voice and her singing is very good. Well her speaking voice is just as wonderful to listen to also. She does mix down her sound a little to add a slight echo to her voice which does help it blend into her piano sound much better that way. That's probably one of the issue I had with Blindboy Gumbo earlier was probably his lack of reverb in his voice that make it hard to blend which in turn exaggerated the intonation issues.

Jean really does have a powerful voice and it comes through, solid and strong. Even though it is all miced, but it is definitely there. I've always had problems with a lot of singers especially in SL who just don't really sing but rather whispers and use that airy voice all the time. It's one thing to get that effect sometimes, but if you want to be a singer, you gotta sing out sometimes even if you have a mic and you're singing in your home.

Now aside from the singing, Jean is also very talented on the piano. Her mellow playing does really compliment her voice and she knows that her voice is the selling point in her performance. But I think we shouldn't over look that Jean is technically very proficient on the Piano.

Jean is a very honest and down to earth musician and performer and she's just fun to listen to. Even when she couldn't remember the key right at the beginning of one of her song, she played around with it and made no attempt to "cover" it up. She was just there, having a great time, as if we were just in her living room, at a small intimate party, enjoying some lovely tunes! But this is certainly not your Aunt Mary's coarse singing and half learned piano playing.

Jean does do more contemporary songs where she doesn't play the piano. She did performed Wind beneath my wings today. And on that, I have to say it's not quite up to par with her piano/voice jazz songs. She still has her powerful voice, but the balance of her voice with the music that was a tad bit off. The music is a little soft and left her just a little bit too exposed and as such her very occasional pitch issues came out just a little. But it's still a good performance.

All in all Jean's music creates a wonderful intimate atmosphere that I would recommend to anyone who just wants an afternoon of relaxation with a lovely voice, lovely piano sound and a lovely woman!

Well I couldn't stay the entire hour even though I would love to, just half the hour since I gotta get going on to the next concert around SL and review that. I'm going to be here for a long long time, reviewing all the time!!!