Music / Jazz
Review: Shabaka, St Mary Redcliffe – ‘Remarkable and unique’
Yes – that’s right: THE Shabaka (Hutchings, Comet is Coming, Sons of Kemet) in THE St Mary Redcliffe (“Finest parish church in England” – Queen Elizabeth I).
Only, of course, it’s not the swaggering sax tyro Shabaka of yore because he’s renounced the saxophone in favour of a variety of flutes and pipes. And his new band is a drumless quintet of himself, two harpists, a synth player and a pianist with a distinctly more meditative approach than the slam-grooving Sons of Kemet.
In short – the new Shabaka sound and the ancient church turned out to be a natural match: well done the Worm Disco crew both for snagging one of his very few UK gigs and for securing the perfect venue to present it.
is needed now More than ever
Shabaka and St Mary Redcliffe – a great double act
Whether or not you are religious the immensity of St Mary Redcliffe’s massive pillars and complex vaulted ceilings is a bit awesome. The tall Shabaka must be around six foot six yet even he looked tiny standing in the middle of the nave for an opening duo set with pianist Elliot Galvin.
But as the music started it gently grew into the massive emptiness over our heads, whether through periods of insistent rhythm or more subdued murmurations. It felt improvised, yet at times clear themes emerged between flute and piano, phrases looping like musical mantras.
For all the pianist’s impish larking, bothering the piano strings with plucks and sweeps, there felt to be a seriousness of intent commanding the pin-drop attention of the sell-out crowd.
Alina Bzhezhinska, Shabaka, Miriam Adefris, Elliot Galvin
For the main set the two were joined by harpists Miriam Adefris and Alina Bshezhinska, and Hinako Omori on synth keys. This larger line-up revealed more of Shabaka’s strengths as composer as well as player, the different sounds deployed judiciously to weave distinctive atmospheres around his focal playing.
The harp sound naturally evoked Alice Coltrane’s style of spiritual jazz and there were passages of gentle rumination as breathy shakuhachi flute and koto-like harp played with a refrain.
They might be disrupted by sudden shifts, however, brasher piano harmonics and deep droning synth bass roiling up only to settle back into subdued fluttering or a lone pipe sound trailing into cinematic poignancy.
Shabaka
Perhaps it was only because of the setting but one piece – a powerful duet of flute and piano with loop samples – seemed to have the melodic clarity and pace of a classic hymn tune, majestically emphasised by a final harp embellishment.
Most powerful, however, was a completely solo piece played by Shabaka on the Teotihuacan drone flute – an ancient Mayan triple pipe. For maybe three or four minutes of circular breathing Shabaka played a sort of counterpoint game with insistent repetition slowly evolving into new harmonic patterns.
The rich sound of the instrument commanded the vast spaces and the awesome playing generated a frisson of tension through the audience that discharged in a tumult of applause at the end.
Alina Bzhezhinska with Shabaka on flute – “awesome playing”
After that things finished with a more straightforward and thoughtful alto flute melody that became a big theme with subtle keyboard bass notes and nurturing piano chords, topped in turn by a baroque encore played on recorder.
Cascading solo notes formed a kind of canon with harp and piano, the circular breathing sustaining overtones and countermelodies. It was both technically and musically stunning, the quintessence of a remarkable and unique experience that will long live in the memory of those who attended it, and a fittingly excellent way to round off Worm Disco’s tenth year celebrations.
All images: Tony Benjamin
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