Column

The Snowboy Column (August)

ON THE MENU... VINTAGE AT GOODWOOD...THE FANTASY FUNK BAND...THE GOOD FOOT...RONNIE SCOTT’S LAUNCHES JAZZ RADIO STATION...EMPIRICAL NEWS...DENNIS ROLLINS NEWS + REVIEWS INC: Incognito's Transatlantic RPM, The Qualitons' Panoramic Tymes AND Kings Go Forth's The Outsiders Are Back.

VINTAGE AT GOODWOOD - NEARLY THERE!

After nine months as one of the entertainment organisers of Vintage At Goodwood (going back to my Butlins Red Coat roots!) it’s nearly upon us. Averaging 100 e-mails a day just on that festival alone and the thousands of phone calls, it’s not as easy as just imagining who I’d like on the bill. I’ve been curating the 40’s area and I just never realised what goes into something like this. Although, technically, my area The Torch Ballroom is one of the biggest 40’s events ever in that genre in the UK it’s still only tiny compared to the size of the whole festival. The ticket-sales have been fantastic, and what a subject – a celebration of British Music, Fashion, Art, Culture and Lifestyle from the 40’s to the 80’s! There is plenty of black music interest to you readers; probably 50% of the musical content is such. Go to www.vintageatgoodwood.com

It’s been a great month of festivals for my band. Infact as I write I’m just preparing to fly to Nice. There was a beautiful one in the lovely surroundings of Cannizaro Park in Wimbledon earlier this month. Unfortunately we had to go on late as my bass player got caught in stand-still traffic five miles away. And why? It was the Mens Tennis finals day at Wimbledon! All rather embarrassing. We performed at a lovely festival in Montauban if France. We were on with Omara Portuanda of the Buena Vista Social Club. Quite a delay – considering that we’ve been performing for 18 years – but we seem to be getting a lot of interest on the French festival circuit now; especially from the Salsa market. We have at least another couple of French festivals in the diary this year.

THE FANTASY FUNK BAND

Things are rolling nicely with this amazing Funk band. We just did Glastonbury and will be doing the Big Chill in a few weeks time. Bingley festival in Yorkshire has just come in for early September and few record labels are getting interested too, so it’s all happening. Eddie Roberts of The New Mastersounds will be passing the Band Leader/Music Director position over to me, as he’s moving to the US. Replacing him on guitar will be the band leader of Speedometer and member of The Perceptions – Leigh Gracie.

THE GOOD FOOT

My DJ partner Yvan (Healer Selecta) is away for a while so I’m getting in loads of what I consider to be unmatchable guests. We’ve recently had Si Cheeba, Eddie Piller, Ian Wright, Adrian Gibson there so keep an eye open for some heavy-hitters. If 60’s and 70’s Deep Funk, Soul, Rare Groove, Latin Boogaloo, Mambo and R&B is your thing then we’re the night for you. Every Friday. Madame Jo Jo’s, Brewer Street, Soho, London. 10pm – 3am. £8 all night. Bargain!

Here’s more news…………..

RONNIE SCOTT’S LAUNCHES JAZZ RADIO STATION IN SUPPORT OF THE BRIT JAZZ FESTIVAL

Following the huge sell-out success of the inaugural Ronnie Scott’s Brit Jazz Festival last year, the legendary jazz club are launching their very own jazz radio station in support of the Brit Jazz Festival 2010.

Broadcasting on 96.3 FM in central London and online at www.ronniescotts.co.uk everyday from 30 July to 14 August 2010, Ronnie Scott’s Brit Jazz Radio will feature guest presenters, live recordings, and highlights from the festival.

Guest presenters include Hammond player James Taylor and pianist Neil Cowley, and singer Ian Shaw who will be presenting a series of shows called ‘Milestones’ - exclusive interviews with musicians and jazz experts.

Brit Jazz Festival 2010 performers Brian Auger, John Taylor and Talvin Singh are just some of the few who will be interviewed in the station’s weekday drivetime show hosted by award winning broadcaster and jazz singer Jumoke Fashola. With members of the public welcome to join in, the two-hour long show will feature live Brit Jazz performances and music by Ronnie Scott’s Artistic Director and musician James Pearson in addition to interviews.

From Mondays to Thursdays, trombonist and singer Michael Mwenso will also host the club’s Late, Late show live from the stage from 11pm till late. In addition to the great line-up of shows and interviews, there will be a special series called ‘1959’ (based on the year the club opened), which will focus on the stellar albums released that year.

Simon Cooke, Managing Director of Ronnie Scott’s said, “We are very excited about our jazz radio debut! The Brit Jazz Festival is a popular and eclectic series which reflects the wealth of talent present in the British jazz scene today, we are looking forward to sharing our festival via the radio station and also to providing interesting and original content to our audiences.”

EMPIRICAL NEWS

After some high profile European performances, along with rave reviews earlier this year, Empirical continue to take Europe by storm with upcoming gigs in Norway and Sweden this October; appearing at Nasjonal Jazzscene Oslo, Nefertiti, Gothenburg and Fasching, Stockholm.

DENNIS ROLLINS NEWS

Sunday 1 August - Snapes Proms, Aldeburgh as part of Maceo Parker's band
Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape Bridge, Saxmundham, IP17 1SP
Box Office: 01728 687110
www.boxoffice@aldeburgh.co.uk

Saturday 7 August - with Velocity Trio at Burton Agnes Jazz & Blues Festival
Burton Agnes Hall, Burton Agnes, Driffield, East Yorkshire, YO25 4NB
Box Office: 01262 490 324

Saturday 14 August - Velocity Trio at Jersey Arts Centre
Phillips Street, Saint Helier JE2 4
Box Office: 01534 700 400

REVIEWS

Incognito – Transatlantic RPM (Dome)

I live and breath Jazz Funk and Fusion. Equally: Soul music. I experienced it all first generation and the same feeling I had then for the music I have now. Incognito’s Bluey and I are of similar age and so I totally understand where his beautiful, well-crafted music comes from – the references, the style……. But you don’t need all that experience. You don’t need to be over 40’s and have gone to The Goldmine on Canvey island, Crackers in London, Rafters in Manchester or Chaplins in Birmingham back in the day, because the music and production sounds so contemporary and relevant to black music fans of all ages.

There is always something exciting knowing that there is about to be a new Incognito album released. We all kind of know what to expect and each album delivers to expectation everytime. But I honestly believe that this is Bluey’s finest album to date. As a lovely surprise too, there are guest appearances from Mario Bondi, Chaka Khan, leon Ware and the massively-underrated Noel McKoy amongst others. It’s hard to highlight any track in particular but I suppose if pushed into a corner I would have to say the mid-tempo two step classic sounding The Song because I’ve never heard Chaka sound better, the Always There’-ish instrumental ‘Expresso Madueira, the Jazz Funk suite Life Ain’t Nothing, 1975….the list goes on. There a little Disco and Soulful House on here too, so there’s a nice amount of variety to keep tantalising us with.

As a DJ, the trouble with these Incognito albums is that there are always so excellent tracks it’s hard to commit to one or two to get behind! That’s a nice problem to have isn’t it!

The Qualitons – Panoramic Tymes (Tramp)

I love all the music from the consistent German label Tramp but was initially surprised to hear this new release. I have a wide-open taste or virtually any music black or white but after listening to the first few tracks on this CD by the Hungarian The Qualitons I was wondering why they expected a Black music magazine such as Blues & Soul to review it. What I heard was something very quite 60’s Mod, almost Psyche, rocky…. frankly, all sounding fantastic but not right for here, and then as the CD unfolds it takes us into the realms of authentic Meters-style Funk and (you won’t believe this) Fela Kuti-style Afro Beat. It’s all done so correctly and with a lot of soul. On paper, this CD shouldn’t work but it does. It all makes sense and it’s a wonderful journey.

Roy Ayers & Bah Samba (Favouitizm)

Yet more quality music from the label of the Black music industrys favourite music-plugger – the lovely Sarah Foote. Most of her releases are House music-based so are not relevant for my page but would I pass up a chance to mention Roy Ayers? It’s not going to happen.

Apparently Bah Samba dragged Roy Ayers out of his hotel bed and got him in the studio for a jam and here is the result. Ok, it is a little bit House-y but ostensibly what we have here is a slab of classic up-tempo Jazz Funk as good as anything that Roy Ayers has ever made. He’s singing and playing as well as ever and the band are on form. So in other words: this evergreen won’t be weeded out of any DJ’s boxes anytime soon. What we have is a perennial which will sell on and on. An instant classic.

Kings Go Forth – The Outsiders Are Back (Luaka Bop)

I am quite ashamed of myself because I was the first person to have this CD many months ago and haven’t reviewed it. I did the first ever interview with this band from Milwaukee for this very magazine. Frankly, I’ve had the CD so long and been playing it out that I’d forgotten I’d not reviewed it. My deepest apologies to Andy Noble and the band – I’m STILL their biggest fan!

The band have released three fantastic, authentic late 60’s raw Funk and Soul 45’s and 12” to Cd (as far as I’m aware) on their own label. The 45’s have created a massive stir in the worldwide Soul and Funk scene. The debut 45 – One Day – sold out so fast that it was fetching £100 on the collectors market within a couple of months. The anticipated debut album appears on David Byrne’s ‘Luaka Bop’ label. How he heard this of this band I do not know, but it’s a great move. It will put them in a spotlight of a much much bigger market out there, and rightly so. In a way there are no surprises on the album. I mean that in a positive way. They’ve made such incredible music so far I was wondering whether they could keep up with the quality that they’d already established. There’s no need to worry there! Al, the 45’s are on here and more of the same – pounding, brash, up-tempo, authentic Funky Soul with soaring lead group harmonies found on the greatest Northern Soul floor-fillers. Thee’s even a Reggae track amongst it all and it works so well in the flow of things.

With such an excellent sound and with such a powerful label behind them, things can only get bigger and bigger.

Snowboy