alexclaber Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 Last night, at the Brighton Dome, I had the pleasure of the post-bop mayhem of Billy Cobham and The Art of Five, followed by the even more hectic world fusion of Joe Zawinul and The Zawinaul Syndicate. And here\'s a review of them playing a fortnight earlier in Santa Cruz. Nathanel Townsley III was completely effortless on the drums, driving along the high tempo African influenced fusion grooves, lots of bouncing 3 over 4 feel. Linley Marthe was like a snarling fretted reinterpretation of Jaco such was his attitude, deep groove and crazy fills and soloing (not keen on his tone though, nasty biting low treble - blame the fretted maple board jazz). Amit Chatterjee spent most of his time playing subtle funky rhythm guitar and doing a fine job, stepping out for the occasional wailing solo, and singing some remarkable lines over exotic scales, notably in his solo spot. Sabine Kabongo's vocals were beautiful and enormously wide ranging - first time I've ever heard a female singer descend into the bass regions and do it with clarity and expression. Joe Zawinul was all over everything with his array of keyboard sounds, too loud in the mix as ever ;-) but he has such vision and even now is composing huge quantities of new material - very inspiring! And Manolo Badrena was just too damn cool - he was like a fountain of percussive joy, so absorbed in and enjoying the music. The gig did go on just one tune too long (bear in mind it was almost midnight and Billy Cobham - who'd opened the night despite being the headliner - had started just after 8 o'clock so we'd heard a LOT of music by then) but overall it was fantastic. Joe finally introduced the band about 1'1/4 into the gig and particularly raved about Linley... "but we always have great bass players - played here with Jaco Pastorius, Victor Bailey, Alphonso Johnson..." I suspect that Linley may be the next big thing - his chops are terrifying, his groove deep and he's full of original ideas. He was playing his elderly jazz bass through a Mark Bass BASIC P 501 head and STD 104 H cab. I'll fill you in on Billy Cobham when my head has cleared... Alex Barefaced Ltd - ultra lightweight, high ouput, toneful bass cabs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doc taz Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 Heh, you lucky bastid. Nice review here. Do fill us in on Cobham. Definitely one of my fave skin and metal bashers. sevenstring.org profile my flickr page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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