Courtney Pine plus Empirical - 20/11/08 Barbican LJF

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Courtney Pine plus Empirical - 20/11/08 Barbican LJF

Thursday, 27 November 2008 11:30

Empirical were electric ten minutes into their set. Playing in tribute to the late Eric Dolphy, Tom Farmer on double bass strummed the pain, in an at times dark and atmospheric set. Nathaniel Facey’s alto saxophone in particular took part in a musical inquest with notes probing the tragic loss. Yet the personality of the gig was bi polar with moments of sweet jazz as if, Lewis Wright (vibes), and Shaney Forbes (drums), joined them in some tumultuous romance.

We were taken to the edge and back of their lover affair with jazz. While Tom promised birthday treats for his father backstage, onstage, he and the band treated the audience to an ominous yet sweet set list, which included Syndicalism. While Nathaniel admitted to forgetting to name all his tracks, the audience were left with memories of their infectious fervour.

Where they left a touch of tropical percussion, their label boss Courtney Pine picked up. Announced as “the dred horn of the apocalypse”, Pine was a force to be reckoned with. Alex Wilson (piano), Cameron Pierre (guitar), Darren Taylor (bass), Robert Fordjour (drums) and Omar Puente (violin) helped him start things off with a bang. They held the audience in the palm of their hand.

Pine’s alto sax seemed like an extension of him – inextricably linked to his body. Paying homage to New Orleanian Sidney Bechet, with velocity, Pine took the audience on a journey with every wind like breath exhaled into the sax, as he marched up and down the stage. 40 minutes in and Pine admitted to being out of breathe; but his train was not out of steam. He blew his horn at each musical juncture. He took us to France with sultry televisual jazz fit for a ballroom dance.

Embodying the title of his new album Tradition in Transition, he and the band spiced up proceedings with renditions of Let my People Go, Summertime and Au Revoir. Myself, and many of the young people in the audience indulged in their fusion of reggae, ska, drum and bass and Latin undertones. Representing the sounds of London, Pine was unafraid to stop mid flow and change direction.

He questioned the audience on definitions of Jazz, but ‘jazz’ was clear in his thunderous concoctions. Pine, for whom the gig had “been emotional”, was reluctant to leave the stage as he seized his musical soapbox. Recalling the political and social changes he had witnessed, he roared into the calypso infused Afropeans reminding the audience that jazz was “meant for the body as well as the mind.”

Review - Fiona McKinson

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