Paul Capsis has been spending a lot of time in Perth of late, from the opening of the new State Theatre Centre to a successful run in Mathew Lutton’s production of Die Winterreise. This month he’s back again with his own acclaimed cabaret show. The show is centered on Capsis latest CD Make Me A King which was released last year.
It’s an intriguing collection of standards like The Man That Got Away, Cry Me a River and Feeling Good which are lined up next to newer compositions from REM, Garbage and Lou Reed. Capsis is clear on where the credit for this successful mix of old and new lies,
‘I think it’s because of the band, there all such great musicians. They’re very versatile because they’re jazz musician and they can play pretty much anything. I’ve worked primarily with jazz musicians for the last ten years because they are the most versatile.’
The album was recorded quite quickly over five or six days a process that Capsis describes as intense but rewarding. It’s a style of recording that Capsis is familiar with, a previous album was recorded in just three days. This album took twice as long but still successful captured the spark of the singer’s performance.
As an interpreter of other people’s songs – and a clear love of an eclectic choice of source material, it must be a challenge for Capsis to settle on a track listing for an album. However to choose the material for this album Capsis followed a simple rule.
‘I pretty much decided it was going to be a collection of songs that I like, songs from shows, songs that I’ve performed live over the years.. It is hard [choosing], especially when I have so many songs that are favourites.’
His live performances is what Capsis is most acclaimed for, when asked to describe his show Capsis tells us, ‘Well it’s a lot of energy, very high energy; it’s very theatrical and a broad range of music. I’m definitely a high energy performer.’
All that energy will be on show at His Majesty’s Theatre on Monday June 13th for one night only as part of the Cabaret and Comedy Carnivale. Joining Paul Capsis will be accompanied by Alister Spence on piano, lloyd Swanton on bass and Toby Hall on percussion.
Graeme Watson
