Music / fusion
Review: Get The Blessing, Canteen
It was only the second number but already the crowd was pressing forward, the front ranks bobbing and swaying in that shapeless way.
There was young and old, men and women … there was Big Jeff, for goodness sake, creating his cloud of exploding curls in front of the stage.
What was wrong with this picture? It was a jazz gig, apparently, and surely that’s not how it’s supposed to be at a jazz gig.
is needed now More than ever
The rock-rooted drive of Get The Blessing’s music may conceal free-form playing and super-smart improvisationary shifts but the overall impact for the Canteen crowed was less chin-strokingly impressive and more grin-provokingly infectious.
It was an impressive turnout, too – these annual visits to Hamilton House are always one of the rare occasions that the room changes from ‘bar with music’ to proper venue (with bar).
The resulting gig was one of those great occasions when the audience’s high expectations seemed to bring even more from the performers.
This year’s fourth CD Lope & Antilope had revealed a broader sound spectrum that was apparent here, both in the construction of the music but also in the handling of electronics.
Saxophonist Jake McMurchie and trumpeter Pete Judge each used their selection of foot pedals adroitly throughout, producing carefully shaped and occasionally unexpected sounds – at one point a falling slide guitar appeared in the mix, courtesy of the tenor sax, at another a guttural clicking was the residue of processed trumpet.
Jim Barr’s bass, like the player, was mostly straight-faced for the evening but did make a deliciously dirty over-driven flange contribution on occasion.
The overall sound was poised and composed, slipping from lounge-slink to a head-slamming riff with the flick of a wrist.
It was a full-on performance and much rested on Clive Deamer’s drumming, probably one of the surest foundations you can have and the precision tool that locks GTB’s music together.
Deamer seemed on fire, ratcheting and scattering around impeccable beats, skating through rhythmic irregularities, even playing one handed while shaking a tambourine.
Tammy Payne joining to sing on one number was another treat from their box of tricks and the whole night was clearly a triumph to judge by the gleaming faces being ushered out at the end.
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