The 1950s American beat poets and the bebop generation of jazz musicians found that the concision, musicality and rhythmic momentum of their respective art forms had a lot in common. The poet Carol Ann Duffy and the jazz singer Eliana Tomkins have been touring such a mix of recitation and jazz from Duffy's beautiful new book of love poetry, Rapture. This performance launched a Rapture CD, with the poet's magnified words spinning behind the performers in the visuals of Stephen Raw.
Duffy's softly evocative readings (hushed sounds seeming to fall away from the words, the music of her Scottish/Irish accent in the sounding of "moon" or "bird", occasional percussive snaps at the ends of words such as "back" or "ache") alternated with Tomkins' jazz arrangements. The singer was partnered by a deft UK band including pianist Geoff Castle, drummer Paul Robinson (who, having accompanied Nina Simone for years, knows all about stepping lightly around powerful lyrics) and sax virtuoso Peter King.
King's incandescent playing mirrored Rapture - full of tenderness, exhilaration, anger, consummate craft, classical symmetry and the blues. Tomkins, a pure-toned, soft-voiced but rather impassive singer, tended to level out the poet's complex emotions more, and her dreamwalk melodies (often locked on to repeating vamps) sometimes seemed becalmed alongside Duffy's vibrant narratives and King's whirling energy. But her delicate tones sympathetically caught the wonderment in Duffy's star metaphor for her lover near the finale.
Five stars for a poetry reading, maybe three for a musical event - four to split the difference. But when you have poetry like Duffy's there really isn't much more for music to do.
· At King's Hall, Ilkley, on October 6. Box office: 01943 816714. Then touring.