Miles Mosley (Bass/vocals); Dontae Winslow (trumpet); Ryan Porter (trombone); Cameron Graves (keys); Tony Austin (drums).(Review by Steve T).
Hot-footed it from Dundee via North Bitchburn to get to this and I'm sticking to my guns that it was the real coup of the festival. When Kamasi's in Sage One and Kendrick, Lotus and Thundercat are at Metro Radio Arena, we'll be saying we saw the bass player at Northern Rock Foundation.
I half expected to see faces from a former life, George Clintons P Funk Mob being the nearest comparison I can make, though Kamasi cites Earth Wind and Fire as the major funk influence. The Jazz content is pretty much comparable for each.
I've been doing this long enough and often enough to know that expectations can lead to pleasant surprises but also disappointment and I attended this knowing it might not be all I hoped for.
It wasn't the breakthrough of my highest expectations but was a funky, fine way to finish off a Saturday night. The songs were good if unremarkable, mostly from his new album and it was great to be able to buy the CD, though some people seemed to know all the words to all the songs already, and why were they £15 when the people collecting the money are the same people who claim nobody wants them anymore?
The musicianship was strong throughout the small band of drums, piano and just two horns and, significantly, they were tight, as you'd expect from a band of brothers, figuratively speaking. I was stood in front of one of the amps which was comfortable when he wasn't playing his upright, loud when he was and exploded when he attacked it with his bow, often through a cry-baby, and I can't wait to hear how that sounds on the album.
The pianist played the funkiest acoustic piano I've ever heard and I found myself looking for a clavinet player, and the drummer may not have been the best in the world, as one audience member suggested and Miles agreed, but it's quite possible he's been dipped in the Tyne.
The audience included many who appeared to arrive specially, or were a hangover from GoGo etc,. and responded to calls of West Coast with the response Get Down, though only tentatively put the words into action, which may have been a blessing.
Tyneside may not have moved as much as the faithful may have liked, but I still think a fusion with hip hop is most likely to be the next big thing in Jazz, which will be great for young people to have something of their own. Three CDs of Kamasi’s Epic was probably too soon, Glasper going R+B a mistake, and Thundercat pulling in a famous popstar to gain radio airplay, not the way we'd like things to go.
With Europe going for an even freer approach and Britain edging toward a smooth, prog, Jazz, funk, rock revival, based on the original American model before a visionary Yorkshireman spotted the error of their ways, the West Coast Get Down need to get on with it.
Steve T
No comments :
Post a Comment