I could be forgiven for thinking that the vibrant, gamine woman sitting opposite me has flown in fresh from the Left Bank in Paris. Over the last eight years or so, Barb Jungr has been making a name for herself as something of an Edith Piaf figure with the Pink Paper even describing her as “a fully fledged English Piaf.”

Her cabaret style has a raw edge that has been stunning critics and punters alike, and she is a regular guest at the Edinburgh Fringe, where her throaty, passionate style has brought new life to the songs of French masters, Brel, Ferré and Prévert, amongst others.

As we sit, soaking up the vieux chic atmosphere of Starbucks, Barb fills in the biographical gaps: “Although I always sang and played the violin at school, I rebelled fairly early on, and veered from the classical path into northern soul. I set up an all-girl folk group with guitars called ‘Arwen’, and we traipsed around the clubs in cheesecloth!”

The deep, throaty laugh that accompanies this pronouncement immediately brings to mind smoky clubs and Galloise, and also a glint of humorous danger.

Jungr is an artist who likes testing herself and audiences, and a progression from folk to the rougher edges of jazz, blues and chansons, her current signature style, was inevitable. “Jazz is improvisational and inspiring and risky and musical. Blues is about expression, and chansons are about lyrics. But, as Hoagy Carmichael said, and I’m with him on this one, ‘Never heard of music that wasn’t played by folk’.”

As part of a very broad musical immersion, Jungr’s studies in ethnomusicology at Goldsmith’s College and an in-depth research into professional musicians and dancers in Malawi lead to a deep and abiding interest in all forms of traditional music. “It’s different, and tests you as a singer.”

While working on a paper on bhangra, Jungr met Indian percussionist Kuljit Bhamra (Bhaji on the Beach, A Little Princess) and the result was one of the first notable fusion records, ‘Durga Rising’, which was a best-seller in the mid 80s with its magical blend of bhangra, blues and soul.

After a stint with her own group, the wonderfully named ‘Three Courgettes’ (I was dying to ask where the name came from, but we moved swiftly on!), Jungr formed a partnership with the blues legend, Michael Parker. As ‘Jungr and Parker’, they met and worked with Julian Clary (Sticky Moments) and Alexei Sayle, won a coveted Perrier Award at the Fringe, and finally came to Barb’s spiritual home, cabaret, where she went on to develop her own solo performance style.

I had to ask: what is Julian Clary like? “Glorious. Very funny, very generous, and very kind. I met him back in ‘84 at the Bush cabaret, and he asked me to come to Edinburgh with him. We’ve been friends ever since, and he has been enormously supportive of my career and, indeed, put up the money for my Chanson show a few years ago."

Chansonnier: it`s an interesting term. It`s a name applied to that special breed of singers, usually women, who are neither bell canto opera divas, nor actresses, nor straight jazz crooners, but a rich, poignant blend of all three. Barb Jungr has brought the art form back to where it belongs: not to the musical or onto a grand theatre stage, but into the small clubs and supper venues which are its real home.

In her latest album ‘Waterloo Sunset’, Barb expresses her passionate artistry with a new collection of classic and original material that carves a unique path through many genres of popular music. For this third record, she’s written three original songs: ‘Do You Play Guitar’, the album`s elegaic opening track, ‘Written Down In The Dark Again’, a disturbing exploration of sex, and ‘Lipstick Lips Lament’, a wonderful evocation of classic American song-writing.

She spins the naivety of the Everly Brother`s ‘Cathy`s Clown’ into a love story of complex sensuality and manipulative deceit. Leon Russell`s ‘This Masquerade’ resonates with the regret and pain that comes at the end of a love affair and Bob Dylan`s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ is stripped of it`s spleen and transformed into an intense psychoanalytical interrogation. The title track is a shimmering version of Ray Davies` ‘Waterloo Sunset’, long a favourite of Barb’s live audience.

However, Barb is not to be forced into a pigeonhole. There’s a sparkle in her eyes that says ‘don’t fence me in’, as she promises, “I don’t see my work in terms of categories, I just do what I want to do and move on. Who knows what I might be singing in ten years’ time?”

As we make our way out onto the streets, I ask my final question: ‘If they were to make a film about your life, whom would you like to play you?’ The response is immediate and emphatic: “An unknown. I’ll haunt anyone who casts some dumb chickie to play me! I want a feisty, fake-strawberry blonde with attitude and an accent. Northern. Real.”

Waterloo Sunset
Released: 2 November 2003
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Linn
ASIN: B0000E6PVC
Catalogue Number: AKD222

‘Waterloo Sunset’ will be launched at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club, Soho on the 3 November 2003 for a debut run from 3-8 November and in Scotland at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow on Saturday 15 November 2003 as part of the Glasgay!, the UK’s largest multi-arts festival for multi-sexual people and their friends.

Barb Jungr’s latest album, ‘Waterloo Sunset’ online and save money.