DB Sound Project @ The Globe – August 29

David Keighley (saxes); Adrian Sander (bass); Ben Grant (drums)

(Review by Ann Alex)

The band worked hard and gave a good, lively performance tonight, but the audience was small, so where were you all? The music was a mixture of originals and re-imaginings of rock songs, complete with fairy lights flashing so as to complement the music, and electronic effects controlled by the saxman.

A typical original was the number which rounded off the first half: Walter, the bass opens by playing a Spanish-influenced tune, then crashing cymbals, the sax cuts across with longer notes, then makes 'crying' sounds, and the piece suddenly ends. Exciting stuff and impossible to say if it was freely improvised or not, you'd have to ask the musicians themselves. The first half gave us mostly originals. Some of these were quite swingy, others were more way outside of the box (Is there actually a box in jazz?). I would have liked 1 or 2 more swingers out of the 8 first half tunes.

The second half was mostly re-imagined tunes such as Golden Brown; Space Oddity; Walking on the Moon; even Coltrane's Love Supreme. Listening to these gave the audience a chance to appreciate the skilled musicianship. The gig was rounded off with two or three funk pieces and I wished I could get up and dance but I couldn't leave my post of guarding the money on the door.

Set List 1: Scarlett's Aurora-Walking Green; 3 Shots Fired; The Spanish Ballerina; Spell of Repetition; Keep it Real; Carnivalesque; Come As You Are; Walter

Set list 2: A Love Supreme – Take The L Train; Golden Brown; Space Oddity; Walking on the Moon; Karma Blue; Searching For Mia; The 37^th Chamber; Groove Funk Swing Thing; Lazarus; Bjork  

Ann Alex