Music: Introducing Hailey Tuck

I’m a big lover of old music, anything from 1920s jazz up to 1980s New Romantics. I have a His Master’s Voice gramophone and a 1960s Grenadier record player which allow me to play my multitude of 78s and 45s, including a huge box full of 1960s jukebox records my dad used to own. I even have a 1950s Regentone radio which can pick up just about any radio station I wish, although it does begin to smell a little when it gets too hot!

Having said that, I do absolutely love discovering new bands and artists and I get so excited by them that I have to buy everything they’ve ever recorded. So, imagine my excitement when I discovered Hailey Tuck, a Texan who now lives in Paris and sings Billie Holliday, Miles Davis and Edith Piaf numbers.

There’s not a lot on the internet about her, although she does have a one-page website which offers a free download of her singing Sunday Morning. You’ll barely find anything on YouTube but she does have an EP out which is available on iTunes and is simply stunning. Each song oozes Parisienne nightclubs of the jazz era, of smokey joints in downtown Chicago and hazy summer evenings in New Orleans. Her voice is so unusual that it is perfectly suited to blues and jazz and leaves you wondering why there aren’t more modern artists like her.

Hailey has a few live shows in the UK this year, mostly at small festivals or intimate venues. I tried to get tickets to her performance at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival but they sold out almost immediately so there is definitely a big interest in her. I’d love to see her live and be whisked back to a time I wish I lived through.