(Report/photos by
Debra M)
I
am not a camper. I was put off many years ago by my family’s first and last
camping holiday near Craster on the Northumberland coast, undertaken with 3
small children and not enough kit. It was a beautiful spot, but all I remember
is feeling tired and cold. However,
times have moved on, and we were lured by Love Supreme and the prospect of a weekend full of jazz in the lush Sussex
countryside, and by glamping.
The
festival site included an outdoor Main Stage and two large marquees - The Big
Top & The Arena, as well as several smaller performance spaces, hosting a
wide selection of live jazz and soul, as well as DJ sets, spoken word & dance
events. Early on Friday evening, our
first stop was the Jazz Lounge to watch Abi Lewis’s Geordie Jazz Man. It is a
beautifully constructed narrative that captures the essence of Keith Crombie and entwines his story with evocative shots of Newcastle from the 1960s
onwards. The audience included a handful of Tynesiders who had known him
personally, 1 or 2 of whom were brought to tears.
Yet,
there’s so much more to a festival weekend. It’s an all-embracing 24-hour
experience, an escape from the daily routine.
All we had to think about was coordinating our selected gigs, and then
just hang, eat & drink. The music
programme didn’t get started until late morning, but salsa classes were available
for energetic early risers.
Opting
instead for a vocal workout, in sessions with the Love Supreme Chorus and Brighton
Swing Choir, I strolled through the near-deserted festival site, empty apart
from the aforementioned salsa dancers, a few staff clearing up and
the sound of piano tuners at work.
Part
of the point of attending a music festival is to try something unfamiliar. One of the highlights from this approach was SEED Ensemble, a ten-piece band from
London, led by alto saxophonist and composer Cassie Kinoshi. They’ve had
a lot of great press and I was curious to see if they lived up to the
hype. They certainly did. The varied set
and a superb horn section transfixed the highly appreciative audience, many of
whom had only wandered in to avoid the Sunday morning rain showers.
Later
in the day, perhaps surprisingly given their mainstream appeal, Madeleine
Peyroux and Jamie Cullum were
scheduled to clash with overlapping set times. Up to this point I had been
musically indifferent to both performers but thought that a late Sunday
afternoon on a summer’s day may be just the right time to appreciate the
languorous chanteuse. So, we stretched out at the back of the marquee (best
acoustics are by the sound desk), ready to listen and be charmed, but then I dozed
off. Thus underwhelmed, we roused ourselves
and headed off instead to Jamie Cullum.
With full band, including horn section and backing singers, this was a
totally different affair. The largely original set traversed pop, rock, swing, Latin
and funk genres. Cullum is an accomplished musical magpie, an energetic and
charismatic performer, and his band was seriously funky.
Our
final musical fix on Sunday night was a recommendation from one of the musos on
the Rough Trade stand. The intense synchronicity of the Makaya McCraven Band was another unexpected highlight, and a great
way to finish the weekend. Meanwhile, many
of the more youthful contingent headed off to party into the early hours, and their
cheers and some stonking soul classics were clearly heard across the campsite, whilst
we drifted off to sleep, dreaming of home comforts.
Debra M
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