Martin Lechner and Band at the Bird’s Eye in Basel, 10 May 2024

At their concert at the Bird's Eye in Basel last night, singer Martin Lechner and his band (Dave Feusi, tenor saxophone; Roland Köppel, piano; Patrick Sommer, bass; Andreas Schnyder, drums) played jazz standards, pop songs from the eighties and nineties, and original tunes. Two of the latter featured my lyrics ("Black Bird" and "Magpies"), and I enjoyed them a lot, but as with Samara Joy's wonderful performance of "Guess Who I Saw Today" at the Volkshaus in Basel last month, Martin was at his very best in two songs where he could dig into the role of a clearly defined character: the standard "It's Only a Paper Moon" and Radiohead's "Creep". (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 10 May 2024)