Accompanied by Paul Edis what a remarkable version of Lerner and Loewe’s ‘If Ever I Would Leave You’ proves. It’s new from English jazz singer Jo Harrop.
Instrumentalists too have taken to the song and more recent versions include the much missed Joey DeFrancesco’s on Joey D which came out in 2008.
The song is something of an emotional rollercoaster. With such perfect, expressive simplicity found in the lyrics’ ringing phraseology as “seeing you in summer I never would go”… “Your hair streaked with sunlight”… “your lips red as flame, your face with a lustre that puts gold to shame” it’s unashamedly lush and romantic and rendered by Jo with her very special contralto voice sincerely with no over-emotion or fakeness in her reading a distraction.
There’s a lovely version of the song on Jo’s 2021 breakthrough Lateralize album What the Heart Wants with the great English ex Sting and Jeff Beck pianist Jason Rebello playing the piano accompaniment.
You can also view a different version on YouTube of the singer with Edis perform the song at the Lighthouse in 2024. Clearly a favourite of Jo’s given these different treatments and who does it on the just released single with plenty of vibrato and an appealing huskiness, the new version is her best yet with Edis – who is touring a programme of Evansiana with Noa Levy – so empathetic and subtle.
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