A Week In Live Music – London & Brighton
So many gigs, so little time! Funk, country, swamp soul, Afghani, Ukrainian and more.
The mighty Fatback pushing the funk forward - founder Bill Curtis far right.
There are many reasons to love living in London, not least because its one of the world’s foremost cities for live music. Thinking about it, I find greater pleasure in a good concert than in any other medium. Sure, a film or TV series can leave me stirred and shaken, while reading is the pleasure I engage in every day. On the occasions I venture into theatres I’m often impressed, stimulated even. While photography/ painting/sculpture feeds my mind. And, speaking of food, yes, I do enjoy eating out. But not on the level that I enjoy music. To state the obvious: I go to a lot of gigs.
Indeed, I’ll turn my holiday time into music tourism – even if I have no idea as to a local scene I’ll still attempt to search out sounds. When fortunate enough to be in a place where live music is a regular occurrence – New Orleans, Skopje, Grenada, Nashville, Lisbon, Paris, Austin, Madrid, Edinburgh, Dublin (to list a few favoured locations) – then I’m determined to soak up beautiful sounds in the same way many take beach holidays and absorb UV rays all day.
Being in London most of the time suits me fine. On a local level there’s so many fine blues and jazz musicians playing out on several nights a week, lots of folk/singer-songwriter events, scuzzy rock pubs, African and Asian, East European and Latin American concerts – sometimes these aren’t publicised beyond the immediate community – and then there’s the touring artists. At times it can be overwhelming. Actually, writing this as Saturday night turns into Sunday morning, I’ll admit to being exhausted - its been an intense week.
Before I surrender to Morpheus here’s what’s lit up my life over the past week.
FATBACK BAND – Jazz Cafe, Sunday 16th
The pioneering soul/funk/disco band from New York City scored a bunch of hits here in the 1970s while exerting an outsize influence on rap and house music’s development, alongside helping establish line dancing (I kid you not). Fatback have always been a self-contained unit with no specified lead singer, led by drummer (now percussionist) Bill Curtis since he first established the band to play weddings, parties, bar mitzvahs at the start of the 1970s. Today Curtis – a stunningly well preserved 92! - and keyboardist Gerry Thomas (a youthful 76) are the remaining original members, while the seven new Fatbackers join in to ensure the fun is mixed into funk, the dope into disco.
On Sunday evening my friend Mike and I dragged ourselves away from a pub showing the England – Serbia game just after Jude Bellingham’s majestic header, entering the Jazz Cafe as Fatback kicked off. Perfect timing (it turned out) as England quickly lost momentum while Fatback’s big beat never faltered. I’ve seen them several times in recent decades but this current lineup – vocalist Jesse Percell-Galloway worked the audience with great confidence while guitarist Chris Campbell sang the male leads tucked away behind a pillar – is exceptional. Both tenor sax and alto sax players (Reginald Woods and Ed Jackson) pumped big fat notes out then took turns at rapping (and rapped well). The rhythms were huge and dancing The Bus Stop found everyone (yes, including me) moving front-back-front-back in unison. Disco remains the most fun musical genre going and Fatback spread their uniquely funky joy on Sunday night.
JJ Grey & Mofro illuminated at the Union Chapel.
JJ GREY & MOFRO – Union Chapel, Tuesday 18th
The Union Chapel in Highbury is surely the most beautiful venue in all the UK to experience a concert and, as the sun set through its magnificent stained glass windows on Tuesday evening, JJ Grey & Mofro – a ten-piece band from Jacksonville, Florida – played with requisite grace and soulfulness. I first came across Grey when researching More Miles Than Money and Bruce Iglauer – founder of Alligator Records (the US’s foremost blues label) – passed me Country Ghetto, the band’s 2007 Alligator debut. Country Ghetto isn’t blues, instead its a fluid mix of R&B and country and rock stylings with Grey’s warm, expressive voice and small town songs recalling the likes of Tony Joe White and early Boz Scaggs.
JJ’s since built up a large US following and seeing him for the first time on Tuesday confirmed why – Grey is charismatic and laidback (as are his songs) while his band play beautifully, the interplay between musicians was superb. The audience – which possibly largely consisted of Americans – loved them and Grey’s laconic commentary made the performance feel like you were hanging with the band at a BBQ joint. A cover of country singer John Anderson’s Seminole Wind was a highlight – Anderson is also a Floridian and largely unknown here (+ overlooked these days in the US) – with Grey handling this epic song with all the drama and pathos necessary.
Grey’s own songs are strong, although I find he tends to overload the choruses – as too many bands do today (its as if the Tik-Tok of music is infiltrating popular music across the board - all about the hook/chorus). Not that Grey dips into cheap gestures, just I feel his songs would be stronger, more lively, if he stepped away from the Big Chorus.
Anyway, spending a summer Tuesday evening observing a band of fine musicians commanding a sizeable audience largely through word-of-mouth – they’re not the kind of band to get much media coverage or hipster enthusiasm or radio play – reflects a golden (and now largely extinguished) era when the likes of Florida’s Allman Brothers won a huge audience via constant touring and exemplary performances.
CORB LUND – The Lower Third, Wednesday 19th
Cord Lund is a lanky Canadian who grew up on a ranch and writes and sings country songs. He’s been doing this for almost a quarter century – visiting the UK on occasion (I last saw him circa 2005) – and, while very popular in Canada, hasn’t managed to transition to a larger audience elsewhere. Indeed, I’m guessing that most of the audience at The Lower Third – a cocktail bar that has turned its concrete bunker basement into a live music venue – were Canuks. As with Grey, Lund’s a raconteur, spinning tales of dodging grizzly bears and Winchester toting aunts, and these feed into his songs, which are elemental honky tonk laments.
Lund, also like Grey, is an artist who lives on the road, playing to the people. Why JJ gets to play Union Chapel while Corb’s in an airless basement is due to Grey being both a superior singer and more interesting songwriter – Lund mentioned Merle Haggard but lacks Hag’s vocal and writing skills. Essentially, he’s a journeyman with a good band – his lead guitarist illustrates his songs with exemplary tones – but no X factor.
This was my first time on Denmark Street since much of London’s historic Tin-Pan Alley was demolished and, well, it certainly has changed (and not for the better).
Portrait of a happy man: Walter sings in front on one of his paintings.
WALTER SALAS HUMARA – Art Dog Gallery, Thursday 20th
Travelling the US in 1990 I’d regularly buy cassettes to play in our old Buick Skylark and one of them was The Silos’ eponymous album on RCA. Memory suggests I thought it a solid, if underwhelming, roots rock album – preceding what would be called “alt.country” then “Americana” by a few years. I never gave The Silos another thought until Art Dog Gallery (in Honor Oak) invited me to an exhibition of Walter Salas Humara’s paintings (where the artist would also sing): Humara being Mr Silo. I quickly learnt that, although RCA dropped The Silos after said album failed to sell in sufficient quantities, the band continued to perform/record in the US while Humara also pursued a solo career and paints.
Walter’s a slim man with long, grey hair and a bright smile. Decades spent playing to small audiences hasn’t left him jaded and his songs, sung in English and Spanish with a hoarse voice, held the gallery’s attention. As with JJ and Corb, Walter told tales of where he has lived and how said location inspired songs. Playing solo he encouraged crowd singalongs – not something I’m keen on – wisecracked and mused on whatever took his fancy. One song’s called Let’s Take Some Drugs And Drive Around - Walter’s not a tear-in-your-beer guy.
He’s a better singer than Lund (but not on Grey’s level) and a serviceable songwriter, but considering the competition out there its understandable he never gained the kind of audience Lucinda Williams or Guy Clark won. That Humara evidently enjoys playing for the public suggests an artist who is happy with the life they have made.
If Walter plays a bar (or cafe) near you he’s worth seeing (and he’s at The Green Note in Camden on June 24 and Maverick Festival in Suffolk on July 5/6).
His paintings, using a horse silhouette against colour fields, are distinctive. https://www.artdoglondon.co.uk/
Here’s War in 1972 with Slippin’ Into Darkness – a song ever more relevant today.
WAR – Royal Festival Hall, Friday 21st
Back in the early-1970s War burst out of south central LA, a Black band (with a Danish harmonica player) whose funky soul-blues blend included jazz improvisation and Latin spice. Their 1972 album All Day Music would be in my all-time Top 10, while War’s run of exemplary hits mixed powerful, deceptively torpid grooves with streetwise observations of US society alongside a stated belief in social justice and racial harmony.
Having initially formed in the early-1960s as a backing band, War were veterans by the time they broke through and, with three founding members having since died (while another three split to form The Low-Rider Band), this leaves only keyboardist Lonnie Jordan as an original member. The Low-Rider Band never venture across the Atlantic, while War rarely do - Chaka Khan’s Meltdown thus gave me the opportunity to see them.
Taking the stage the first thing I noted was how the 6/1 racial demographic has now become five white and one Mexican musicians surrounding Jordan, the only African American. No matter, War in 2024 sound very much akin to fifty years ago - Jordan may be centre stage and handling the lead vocals but, while they lack the rich vocal mesh of the original band, War 24 remain a potent live band.
Jordan, a slim, energetic man, loves playing to the audience but his grandstanding means the opening three tunes - Me And Baby Brother, Slippin’ Into Darkness, Cisco Kid - are all marred by showboating and instructions for the audience to take over the singing (please god, no…). Having got such foolishness out of his system, Jordan lead War into powerful renditions of The World Is A Ghetto and Get Down that demonstrate how powerful War’s best songs remain - also: the striking interplay between rhythm section and saxophone/flute and harmonica. Low Rider was the final number and, again, Jordan interrupted its epic groove with bantz. This and problems with Jordan’s keyboard saw War refuse to return to play an encore, even though the RAH audience was demanding one. A sour end to a concert that, occasionally, demonstrated how potent War’s best songs remain.
While Fatback Band never matched War in sales or critical adulation, their determination to keep the audience dancing is preferable.
Milad Yousofi plays rubab with great expressive feeling. Yes, he looks like the young Al Pacino.
REFUGEE WEEK MUSIC FESTIVAL – Jubilee Library, Brighton, Saturday 22nd
Ordinary people can do extraordinary things and one exemplary example of this is Phil Minns, a Brighton-based educator, sound engineer and promoter who founded Best Foot Music, a charity dedicated to promoting the music of refugee communities.
Minns started Best Foot when he was working with Polish Roma musicians (which is how I came to first meet him) and then went on to engage with Syrian, Somali, Afghani and myriad other musicians, all of whom share one thing in common: they fled brutal conflicts that led them to seeking refuge in the UK. Considering Minns works full-time teaching music technology to teenagers, his energies as a music promoter are impressive (and he does this as a volunteer).
Saturday’s event gave me an excuse to return to Brighton, a city by the sea that I love, so seeing old friends, doing a spot of crate digging and hearing music performed that was very different to all I had experienced over the past week.
The Refugee Week Music Festival lasted from midday until 4pm and was free entry, so bringing a polyglot audience into the impressive Jubilee Library. Things began with the All Saints Community Choir raising their voices in beautiful unison. Then Vlada and Naomi discussed Ukrainian poetry and culture, specifically that of the Crimean Tartars . Next Jamal and Alaa, a Syrian darbuka (hand drum) and oud (Arabic lute) performed several folk songs - this duo are magnificent musicians with Jamal’s fingers tapping out pulsing beats while Alaa sang in Arabic, such a harsh, expressive tongue, as he plucked the oud. Syria was once home to one of the Middle East’s most lively music scenes, one now shattered and scattered by the war that engulfed that nation. Jamal and Alaa were then joined by Dina and Polina, two Ukrainian musicians, and the quartet fused their different musical traditions in a good natured if still not quite fully formed fusion.
Suna Alan: a beautiful singer in every sense.
When youthful Afghani rubab player Milad Yousofi took the stage with a 17-year old Afghani tabla player - tabla are the dual hand drums played across the Indian subcontinent and into Central Asia - the duo demonstrated absolute mastery of their tradition. Yousofi has the good looks of a young rock star and plays like a man possessed - the rubab is a bowled lute and Afghanistan’s national instrument, the sounds it conjures up harking back to time out of mind. Finally, Suna Alan, a Kurdish vocalist, took the stage flanked by two musicians playing stringed instruments. Alan’s a supremely confident performer, describing to the audience what each song is about and where its origins are (Arabic, Turkish, Roma etc). An epic final number saw many in the audience join several Kurds in forming a joyous circle dance. A perfect symbol of the unity music can offer.
After a week of seeing exclusively North American artists, all in the soul/funk or country/American genres, it was a relief to my ears to hear such beautiful music from Eastern cultures. Minns told me after the music was over that he had applied for and received a Heritage Lottery Grant so to put on events like this - this ensures the musicians and venue can be properly remunerated. What a good way of ensuring arts in the community are successfully hosted - I’ve been saying it for years: WOMAD should employ Minns to book a small stage where he could present the many remarkable refugee musicians Best Foot engages with.
As my train rolled back towards London I thought on how, then out at Wembley, the world’s most popular singer was entertaining an 80K audience. I’m sure her fans enjoyed celebrating Swift but, for me, the music I’d experienced at Jubilee Library was just what I needed, a balm to the soul and fabulously beautiful.
https://www.bestfootmusic.net/
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Brighton rocks, no doubt about it.