Faye MacCalman (tenor sax, clarinet,
synths, voice); John Pope (bass guitar, effects); Christian Alderson (drums,
percussion)
This was a fine and exciting set of music.
I don't say tunes, as that would be giving a very limited impression of what
this sort of gig is all about. The influences quoted by the band are jazz, alt
rock, blues and folk but the sum of all these parts, and some parts I couldn't
define, is greater than the whole. Forget the standard jazz tune, solos, then
back to the tune. You get all-sorts with this band, clapping, singing which is
sometimes wordless, fragmented snatches of tune, repeated riffs, effects giving
the sound of about 6 musicians instead of just 3, and sometimes a calm steady
tune and sometimes lively bebop. The band somehow contrive to get cohesion into
all of these pieces which are all originals.
For example, the amusing Wake Up Now
began with Faye sweetly singing the words of the title and the bass sounding
like the ticking of a clock, then stops and starts in the music which suggested
a car engine, to my ears anyway, then a strong rhythm from sax and guitar,
ending with a sudden stop.
The final piece was very topical, entitled Waiting,
all about chaos. This began calmly with clapping in rhythm, singing by John and
Faye in harmony, then the song and instruments becoming wilder, fragments of
sax, louder, with the sound continuing after the band had stopped playing.
The sound was good during the music but a
bit low for speech so I'm unsure of some of the titles that Faye quoted. The
set list was apparently: Picture This; Let Go; Chemical (a real tour de
force); Aired; Wake Up Now; new one untitled; The Wide And Dark Sea;
Waiting.
I don't think that describing the music
further would be any help, you should get on to YouTube to find out more. About
28 people were recorded as watching which means 28 households and the comments
box showed much appreciation of the music. I waited patiently for the start on
YouTube, to discover after 20 minutes or so that others could see and hear. I
had to fiddle with the computer, leaving YouTube and going back in, before I
finally accessed the gig, which was a nuisance. Hopefully the Jazz Co-op will
eventually sort out these problems. This didn't really detract from the music.
Ann
Alex
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