Lakecia Benjamin Quartet + the Deschanel Gordon Trio @ Jazz Café, Camden, London - March 27

Lakecia Benjamin (alto sax); Zaccai Curtis (piano); EJ Strickland (drums); Ivan Taylor (bass).

Lakecia Benjamin proudly wears her John Coltrane/Pharoah Sanders influences on her golden leather jacketed sleeve. It’s what was the new thing 60 years ago but now remade for this century.

Her opening solo is an explosive statement of intent. There is no build-up, no subtlety; with the trio she is part of an avalanche of sound, climbing, searching, soaring, her long locks wrapped around her face and horn as she plays. Her music is rooted in the melancholy of the blues with a ferocious defiant refusal to accept the world as it is built on top. One of her songs turns into a rap “A shot rings out, A black man is down, IT’S NOT FOR ME.” She and Strickland face off, challenging each other to go louder, to bring more of it, whatever it might be. Benjamin is an energetic performer, there is no stillness to her; the trio take station at the edges of the small stage leaving room for her leaps and wanderings during the set.

She slows proceedings at one point for a duet with Curtis on Amazing Grace, her solo pierces the sky and follows that with a melancholic swoop back to earth. Up next, Jubilation is a return to the thunder with Strickland’s drumming even mightier than what has gone before; after the duet with Curtis, this is a duel with Strickland. Taylor is the anchor at the back holding it all together as the theme turns up on the sax, no, it’s over there on the piano, solos everywhere but great ensemble playing too.

She introduces the band and herself (Lake CIA, she says, “Like the Government”) and then, for the avoidance of doubt, Benjamin leads off the next tune on her own and her solo leads us into a fast and furious My Favorite Things. Steve said “She’s fantastic” and then he had to leave to catch the last train. My new best friend, Ian the postman from Muswell Hill, and me were grinning at each other like daft things. Jazz as a communal force for good! Her album, Phoenix, (reviewed here on BSH) is tremendous and still my favourite of the year so far, but the live experience is so much better!

I told her manager afterwards to bring her to Newcastle. She said she’d look into it.

Deschanel Gordon (piano) plus bass and drums

You get used to jazz gigs being a first hour, half hour break, second hour and home with no support and that a support act always comes as a bit of a surprise and the fear that, if they’re not very good, you’ve wasted time that could have been better spent listening to the headliner. Not tonight, however. Deschanel Gordon won the Young Jazz Musician of the Year Award in 2020 and, as my mate Steve said, “He can really play.” There’s touches of Oscar Peterson in there and, at other times, thoughts turn to Herbie Hancock and Count Basie but most of the time I was busy being impressed by the delicacy of his touch and the complexity of some of the rhythms he and the others (whose names I didn’t catch) ran through. Less complex moments came with a reggae lilt and a hint of Gershwin in a more romantic interlude. Half an hour very well spent. Dave Sayer (and Steve)