The Running Horse - 15 October 2005
Not much to add to my earlier
review, really. Except to say that they are even better with an audience. Best quality
musicianship, great grooves and good feel.
Roger dealt out a funky solo, working over his own sequences and playing some exceptional high
passages. Joachim delivered a polished solo replete with wizardry and japes, eventually bursting into
his own splendid variant of Art Blakey’s heavenly groove from Night in Tunisia. Jules’
guitar playing was staggering with every delicious delicacy in place and plenty of stabbing and
soaring (and some good wrenching, too). John’s harp playing was superb, and he obviously
enjoyed a properly appreciative audience (which we all were). Lorna guested again bringing equal
proportions of silk and smoke to the microphone.
The friend I had invited had spent the morning fixing a deal at CD UK having to listen to tiresome
teenie music. The JOB lifted his exhaustion clean away. A splendid time was had by all. And
congratulations to The Running Horse for being the perfect place to see a
band — good acoustics and a great atmosphere.
19 October 2005
Nottingham University - 14 July 2005
In a wonderful scene in
The Russian Ark, the camera wheels
from a showy theatrical performance to its audience — Catherine the Great.
By gate-crashing an IBM function, Viv and I managed to see the marvellous
John O’Leary Band as if we were royalty at a command performance. Most amazing,
they managed to give an exuberant show despite the almost empty room. The IBMers
were probably too mesmerised by their recitations of the Deep Blue binary to
find their way from the conference to the concert.
Actually, this band should be headlining at Buddy Guy’s
in Chicago. Purists will nod sagely at John O’Leary’s assured place in the
lineage of Little Walter and Junior Wells. John O’Leary shows why the
harp was the dominant instrument in blues soloing before the advent of the
electric guitar. His perfect phrasing at times sounded like a horn accompaniment.
Up in heaven, or down in the bar below the two Sonny Boy Williamsons would
hush their quarrel to listen to this man blow.
Guitarist
Jules Fothergill would stand out at any blues gathering — as he did at
the Astoria
Dick Heckstall-Smith tribute in
June. His solos ignite like a sparkling fuse and explode like a sky-full
of fireworks. Jules was paired by his co-guitarist in Funkydory, Marc
Le Guerrannic. Now, I was sure that a talent like Jules’s would have
to be unique, so it was a joy and a wonder to see another player with the same
level of technique and assurance, and most importantly
feel. They swapped
solos with both intensity and individuality.
If you want to hear how it should be done, listen to drummer Joachim Greve
and bassist Roger Innis providing the immaculate rhythm section. Joachim can
tell a radamacue from a paradiddle in the dark with both eyes closed, and he
keeps them elegantly in their proper places. The six-string bass of Roger Innis
is the lynch-pin of the band, smoothly egging every solo further.
Lorna
Reilly, Funkydory’s singer, was guesting. She has an earthy passion
unknown to the glitzy divas of urban soul. She reminded me of Maggie Bell back
in the days of Stone the Crows. She could tear the casing from the hardest
heart at fifty paces, in the process making shy boys smile and the angels blush.
Go and see Funkydory to hear her take on T-Bone Walker’s
Stormy Monday
Blues.
All this to a tiny and mainly jaded audience. Imagine what they’ll be like
when you see them with an enthusiastic crowd. Better yet, don’t imagine
it, go and see them!
22 July 2005
