Thundercat @ Newcastle City Hall - March 29

Thundercat (bass, vocals); Dennis Hamm (keyboards); Justin Brown (drums)

Weather Report allegedly claimed that ‘We never solo and we always solo’ and that ethos was live, well and had its big boots on on Friday at City Hall. I’m still not entirely sure what the hell that was. It was jazz, Jim, but there was so much in the mix that it’s almost impossible to see what there was. Visually, Stephen ‘Thundercat’ Bruner channels Japanese manga/Anime and Afro-Futurism in the huge Thundercat backdrop, the frequent references to the Dragon Ball films, the kimono, the golden braids and the wide, golden collar. By way of contrast, the keyboard player looks like an accountant on dress-down Friday. All that’s before the music starts.

Musically, it’s an overwhelming mash of jazz-rock, (Weather Report without Wayne), prog-rock, Parliament/Funkadelic funk, Curtis Mayfield in the vocals and just a generous spirit of joy and well-being. Restraint is a word that is left at the door. This is frantic. A near constant fusillade of drums, bass playing where Thundercat’s fingers don’t seem to rest on the strings of his six-string bass long enough for a note to be played, but played it is.

(© Patrick Young)

Most people came to Thundercat from one direction from Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly or another, through Kamasi Washington’s The Epic and those are useful touchstones as the show ranges between soul and very modern jazz. Even the ballads, which start as a respite from all the sound and fury, manage to blow up into free jazz. I’m not sure that the young ‘uns in the hall (and there were hundreds of them - hundreds! at a jazz gig!!), knew that free jazz was what they were getting but they were. At several times during the evening the trio would take off in different directions, complex keyboard lines would be matched with knotty bass playing and a rattling fury from the drums. It was a long show of two hours without a break but absolutely tremendous.

The merchandise stall had the usual LPs and T-shirts or, if you wanted to wear Thundercat at home you could buy a kimono for 200 quid. Perhaps local bassists, Messrs Champion and Pope, should explore something similarly sartorial for their next gigs. Dave Sayer