I have a confession to make. I am most certainly not a fan of what I tend to refer to as “noodle jazz�. I just like some structure in my music, and this kind of meandering thang generally doesn’t deliver. But hey, if it’s good enough for Lisa Simpson then, with some trepidation, I’ll don my stripy shirt, doff my beret at a suitably jaunty angle, grab a glass of red and give Melba a go.

Not that she’s always been a jazz chick, mind, for many will know her from her days as a disco diva. However, Live in St Lucia comes straight from the tenth annual St Lucia Jazz festival, so there’s absolutely no OOMP-TSIT-OOMP-TSIT-OOMP-TSIT-OOMP-TSIT four-on-the-floor rhythmic stuff going on here. Rather we get a band consisting of bass, drums and piano backing Melba on a variety of songs ranging from traditional jazz through to Motown pop – but with the latter given a slightly jazzy spin.

It has to be said that Moore, the daughter of famed performer Bonnie Davis, has a remarkable voice. With a four octave range she can go from Barry White-like baritone to Smurf-like squeak essentially within the confines of one note, and as she can she does - frequently. Through jazz classics such as Blue Skies and Stormy Weather to pop gems like My Guy and Too Many Fish in the Sea she does her own inimitable thing, with a foray into a Hair medley (she rose to fame in the Broadway production of same) and the theme from her Tony Award-winning performance in Purlie, along with a couple of wig and costume changes along the way just for fun, and a whole lot of banter in-between. Oh, and don’t forget the “audience participitation� (sic), either...

Track listing:

Full frame is the order of the day for this release, in what is a generally sharp and reasonably detailed presentation which is marred on occasions by basically cruddy camerawork which sees things drifting out of focus – but naturally we can’t blame the DVD for this one. The main issue is the lighting of the show, with a vivid blue wash flooding the stage combined with red front lights – leading to somewhat messy colour smudging at times. In all it isn’t fabulous visually, however it certainly isn’t horrific either.

The sound, on the other hand, offers up no such concerns. With a choice between Dolby Digital stereo, DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1, there’s certain to be something here to please everybody. As is pretty much the norm the two 5.1 mixes offer very little difference to normal ears, although some may find there’s a little more in the way of “sparkle� in the DTS. Either way you go, there’s not much for the subwoofwoof to get involved with, however the surrounds flesh things out quite nicely with a selection of audience sounds and a bit of musical spillage. If you like it all a bit more CD-sounding then you can go for the straight stereo mix, whilst lacking the immersive qualities that six speakers offer, it still sounds pretty good.

A single solitary extra is included, a 10:14 interview with Ms Moore. This gives her a chance to yabber on a bit more about her being born again (she touches on it once or quite a lot of times during the main show), as well as a bit about familial inspiration and how she started off in the biz.

At 70 minutes this isn’t the longest of presentations out there, however if you’re into Melba’s enthusiastic and often quite remarkable brand of octave-busting jazzy thang then you very may well find much to cherish within what’s on offer here.

Meanwhile, maybe Lisa will grow out of this jazz thing soon and discover the wonders of punk?