Music / contemporary jazz
Review: No Go Stop, Jam Jar
No Go Stop’s debut album Agbara Orin was a fine showcase for the 12-strong band’s powerhouse classic Afrobeat sound – remorseless percussion grooves, blasts of brass energy, solid rhythms woven from jangling guitars, hard-nosed bass riffs and fulsome keyboards – with singer Marie Lister’s unrestrained soul-funk vocals very much to the fore. It was a guaranteed dance party live on stage and the band quickly became a festival fixture. Anyone anticipating their follow-up recording has had a long wait – seven years, in fact, – but with this gig No Go Stop happily announced the waiting was over as they played through the six tracks of Where We Are.
No Go Stop (Pic: Tony Benjamin)
And the good – if hardly surprising news – is that while there’s a wider sound palette in the new material they haven’t lost any of their fire nor strayed too far from the music’s Lagos roots. Opening track Flamingo, for instance, boasted an intricate two-guitar riff and smoother rhythm with hints of Detroit about but the undertow of interlocked percussion was ever-present and quickly rose to the fore as Justin Goodall’s guitar and Ben Plocki’s bass saxophone each took excellent solo’s. Similarly Simple State’s opening brass chorale and sinuous bass line made a harmonically rich impression before Marie’s vocals combined the mundanity of a pensive bicycle ride with impassioned soul styling.
James Ladd & Justin Goodall (guitars), John Short (bass) and Dale Hambridge (keys). (Pic: Tony Benjamin)
The trick with great Afrobeat is to combine skilful jazz with the essentials of dance music without either getting in each other’s way, something No Go Stop nailed throughout a set of relentless dance floor action. James Ladd’s guitar solo on Simple State was a case in point, neatly blending in echoes of jazz greats like Wes Montgomery, while John Pratt’s tenor solo over John Short’s stinging bass line on Shopping caught the fiery edge of Fela Kuti’s original sound but added deeper jazz resonance.
is needed now More than ever
Marie Lister (vocals), John Pratt (tenor sax). (Pic: Tony Benjamin)
The sax player seemed to be having a load of fun, in fact, heading off into Coltrane country in a trio section with the two guitarists during My Mother, House of Tradition – a track from their first album, swiftly followed by the Fela Kuti classic Zombie. That song had provided the band with their name and by that point the party was as much on stage as on the dance floor – appropriate enough, as this would have been Fela’s 84th birthday. After two hours on stage it really felt as though they would live up to their name, too, but despite it all they eventually did stop.
No Go Stop. (Pic: Tony Benjamin)
Was it all worth the wait? Undoubtedly – and when you think of the intricacies of arrangement behind big band Afrobeat of this quality maybe seven years is not an unreasonable time to get your album together. After all, it may well be powering through festival fields and dance clubs for many years to come.
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