Summertime, and the living is... cut by 17 minutes

A British jazz singer has stunned critics by releasing a new version of the old favourite Summertime sung in the original key and using no more notes than the composer intended.

The track, by singer, Clare T'Pau, was described as "groundbreaking" and "breathtaking" by several Jazz publications. Breaking completely from the tradition of stringing an already dreary song out to over 15 minutes, the new version — entitled Sumertime [sic] — is done and dusted in just under three minutes. This makes it the shortest rendition ever recorded and likely therefore to earn a place in The Guinness Book of Records.

"I started out my career in the usual way: covering other people's songs in a different key and singing the words a lot more slowly than intended," T'Pau told The Rockall Times yesterday. "I also used many, many more notes than originally written, but for my new album I decided to take a radical departure from the norm and sing exactly what was written on the score."

T'Pau — who takes her name from her mother, Charlotte T'Pau, famous in the 1980s for having the same name as the band "T'Pau", themselves famous in the 1980s for having taken their name from a character in Barbarella (which also inspired famous 1980s outfit "Duran Duran", although they never, sadly, recorded with T'Pau) called "T'Pau" — was said to be delighted at the response the track had received.

"I'm delighted at the response the track has received," she enthused in an interview on Jazzmatazz, the <plug>new BBC Digital Radio station available on DAB digital radio and now Freeview — a package of BBC products which you can get for a one-off payment of around £100.</plug> When asked about the unusual spelling of the piece, she replied "when this record was first released, in 1762, it was much shorter than it is now. The extra 'm' got added later along with a melancholy 37-minute tenor sax solo. I wanted to remain true to the original."

Clare's album, Travels on the landscape of Jazz is released on Friday on the "Baby's Thumb" label.

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