Brown Penny @ Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham - May 3

Cassie Kinoshi (alto saxophone, vocals & electronics); Tyrone Isaac Stuart (alto saxophone, vocals); Tjoe Man Cheung (guitar & electronics); David Mrakpor (vibraphone, Rhodes, synths); Isobella Burnham (bass, synth bass & vocals); Ayo Salawu (drums, percussion).

We’d booked to see Cassie Kinoshi last year but visa problems kept her in Berlin, but she made it this year with her new project, Brown Penny. The Festival brochure promised a ‘heady collision of indie, metal, jazz (!) and electronic music.’

They begin with The Descent, contrasting fuzz guitar and stomping drums with delicate vibes; long sad lines duetting on the altos carried into Kinoshi’s melancholy solo. Cheung’s guitar solo of fragments doing a call and response on one instrument creating tension and release as the altos carried on over the top with the drummer furiously filling in on the smallest kit of the festival so far. (We’d just come from seeing Billy Cobham).

Super Moon was joyous Nu Soul challenged by the blue notes of the saxes, with the vibes ringing out as it turned into a solid wall of noise that breaks down to drum rolls and fills before Stuart’s sax takes us on a winding line, deep down and desperate in emotion. Drums and bass erupt behind him; the whole band is really rocking with the vibes providing punctuation and a sort of frame around all the sound. The drums are kicking it all on and up as it builds to a crescendo and falls away.

Electronically manipulated vibes sing us into Hairband echoing in the hall, it raises Gary Burton playing Bud Powell to mind. It sets a groove for bass and drums to roll into; a sax duet is a brief interlude in the ongoing vibes solo, a joyful tumble of notes cascading, brisk but still fragile. Dynamic drumming and bass support the altos whirling and wailing over the top leads to a sudden stop and a gentle fluttering close. 

Until opens with thunderous bass and rattling driving drums as a simple rising riff on the altos lead into a guitar solo of angular squeals and alarm wails folds itself in under the bass and drums. The bass is driving this whole thing, filling and rising in a wave providing a foundation for the drummer to build upon. Next up is Lipstick, a post punk drive that features scything guitar and more volcanic drumming. Twice As Good opens with tapping drums, bubbling bass, finely picked guitar and singing vibes over which the altos wail is almost a religious call; Stuart’s solo ends on a flurry of notes that Kinoshi picks up exactly and carries it on through some free blowing squeals and cries; the drummer fills, rolls and drops bombs behind their calls.

Nowadays gives us a lift; a celebratory urban funk groove, smooth and blue, with its Caribbean roots showing through. Glowing vibes sing out behind the voices and the saxes sing out the vocal line over dancing drum and bass.

The set ends with We Can Be Friends, all shuffling funk with tumbling vibes, bomb dropping from the drummer and fiercely picked guitar and blueswailing sax. Kinoshi’s solo swoops and flies, suggesting fractions of nursery rhyme poetry; the bass solo is all fluid runs, leaving some notes hanging in the air; a nod and the drummer picks up the groove. The altos call out duelling and duetting and the bass rolls in behind them. The band comes from together as, first, the bass drops out and then drums and guitar to leave the vibes hanging.

I’ve always been impressed by Cassie Kinoshi’s writing and arranging; here she has collected a pretty young group to work on these compositions which masterfully layer the different instruments and interweave them with each other. I’m not sure where she will take it next, but more than a few of us will be on the journey with her. Dave Sayer