"Stonephace"
Stabbins, (saxes and flute), Zoe Rahman (piano), Pat Illingworth (drums),
Crispin"Spry" Robinson (percussion), Karl Rasheed Abel (bass).
Africa ,
I was hooked.
(Review by JC.)
Although I like
to think I keep in touch with what's happening in music, sometimes a name or a
group are mentioned that I have to admit I've never heard of. Larry "Stonephace" Stabbins was one
of these names and the group that was mentioned in connection with him, Working Week, was another. However, in
my defence, looking up the internet, it seems they came to prominence in the
1980s when I was in rural seclusion living in a tiny village in deepest
Northumberland. So access to music was quite limited and although it was
rumoured that there were brilliant Northumbrian pipers, fiddle and harmonica
playing shepherds somewhere about, I never heard any of them and the only gig I
went to in 8 years was the Ray Stubbs One Man Band in a pub in the next
village. However, I would have thought the name 'Stonephace' might have stood
out in the cultural ether, as even among the hard biitten characters living in
tiny snow bound cottages in the
Northumberland hills, it was not that common a title.
So although I'd
never heard of him, the previews on BSH were insistant, saying 'Whatever you
do, don't miss Stonephace Stabbins' and as I saw that Zoe Rahman was playing as
well that was good enough for me. As it happened circumstances meant that I
couldn't get to any of the earlier shows so having a gig that didn't start
until 10.30pm was perfect. The gig was in the Northern Rock Hall, which is not
my favourite performance space as the ceiling is too high and it's hard to get
an intimate atmosphere. But none of that mattered, as from the first couple of
notes of Coltrane's
The band started on a high and carried on upwards. The music was
from their latest album Transcendence
and channels the intense emotional feel of Coltrane's spiritual jazz. I knew
none of the tunes but that didn't matter, Stabbins and the band were terrific.
Zoe Rahman had the piano under her complete control with spiky chords and
rippling solos. If my piano teacher had told me, as she tried to get me to
practice Greensleeves, that it was okay
to give the keyboard an ecstatic forearm smash every so often (as Zoe did) I'd
still be playing. The rest of the band were equally great, laying down a
consistently innovative groove for the sax and piano to sweep over and
featuring individually at numerous points.
It was a great set of exciting, high
energy music which got an attentive response but not quite the lively
enthusiasm it absolutely deserved.
Stonephace himself was very affable, telling stories about buying
Coltrane's album when he was 13 and getting chucked out of a mainstream band he
was playing in at the time because he tried out one of JC's solos, much to the
chagrin of the bandleader. I, of course, bought the CD after the gig and it's
great, if not quite as exciting as the gig. But then the gig's not on every
night.
I may not have
known about Stonephace Stabbins last week - but
I do now!
Addendum - the Raquel Welch phenomenon
Checking out
Stonephace Stabbins web site when I got home, I was delighted to find that
there was a great video of the Africa track, with excellent sound and quite
psychedelic visuals. However, although not wanting to sound like a movie
'anorak' as in 'Why is Raquel Welch wearing a watch with her sabre-toothed tiger bikini in that scene from 3000 years BC', I couldn't help noticing that Zoe seems to change
her top at least once, if not twice, over the course of the track and that at
some points, when she seems to be playing Tyner like chords on the piano, there
are rippling runs coming over the sound track. Maybe that's transcendence for
you.
JC
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