Dave Fuller writes;

Mostly Jazz Funk & Soul Festival Highlights

Moseley Park, just a couple of miles south of Birmingham city centre, basked in glorious, hot sunshine this weekend as the Mostly Jazz Funk & Soul festival got underway on Friday. Overall, and as expected, it was light on jazz but featured a good dose of retro soul, RnB and funky brass bands.

The highlights for me on the first day, both new to me, were West Midlands soul and RnB singer and songwriter Czafari, with a band that featured the young and versatile Solihull-based pianist Josh Bailey, an artist I’ve not seen perform outside of a jazz context before.
Lulu. (as her Instagram profile clarifies “the full-stop is deliberate” - I assume to avoid confusion with another, better-known singer with the same name) performed an uplifting and varied set reflecting her Nigerian roots. Her band featured Romarna Campbell on drums. I didn’t stick around for Groove Armada, Goldie or the headline act Maribou State, but I got mixed reviews the following day from friends who did.

Saturday kicked off with the B:Music youth project B:and Together on the main stage, which saw Josh Bailey back on stage demonstrating his jazz chops.

In an unannounced change to the printed program (although included in the small print of the line-up poster), multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer Credo Kampeta replaced Bo Bardot as the first act on the second stage, fronting a six piece band with soulful vocals and gorgeous accompaniment from a female backing vocalist and a saxophonist, neither of whom I was able to identify.

I think the highlight of the day for me was quite unexpected - the name Disco Manifest had me wondering, but it turned out to be a 12-piece ‘supergroup’ formed three or four years ago at the Birmingham Conservatoire by saxophonist David Bustos. Faces I recognised were former Music Spoken Here performers Dan Lockheart (alto sax), Josh Vadiveloo (electric bass) and Julien Durand (guitar) along with Luke Chakrabati (baritone sax), Charlie Humphries (trumpet), Andrew Duncan (drums) and Katy Minter (vocals). I didn’t recognise the second trumpet, trombone or keyboard payers that completed the line-up. It was a great band for a festival, covering some great funky disco tunes, but earned extra kudos for playing Jaco Pastorius’ “Come On, Come Over” (you’ll find a video clip on the Music Spoken Here Instagram profile).

It was a bit of a day for brass-heavy bands, including two Birmingham-based bands - New Orleans style Heavy Beats Brass Band and the heavy rock laden Big Band of Boom - and funk soul powerhouse Tom Maguire and the Brassholes from Glasgow.

Other highlights from Saturday’s lineup were funky soul collective Speak! from Birmingham-based songwriter and producer Jake Parsons (who incidentally will be playing this week’s Free Jazz Friday session at Birmingham Symphony Hall) and Seun Kuti, youngest son of Fela Kuti, maintaining his father’s legacy as leader of his Egypt 80 band. Energetic Afrobeat music and political commentary ensued! The headline War got the crowd dancing in the dusk to close out the second day.

On Sunday, I was looking forward to seeing Amy Gadiaga perform again, but it turned out she was unable to make the festival and her slot on the program was given to singer Georgie Sweet accompanied by guitar and keys. Wonder 45 delivered original tunes in the classic Motown style and Diddy Sweg - featuring trombonist Dave Sear and trumpeter Alex Astbury, delivered stage antics and nonsense perfect for a hot festival afternoon!

Highlights for me were LAOD, a trio featuring vocalist Lucy Anne Daniels and guitarist Julien Durand (both of Dreamscapes who performed for us in June), joined by Kai Chareunsy on drums, and Alive By Night - an 8-piece disco funk band that may well find their way onto the our Sunday Service program in the future.

So, this brings me to Sunday’s headline Ezra Collective. I had been excited at the prospect of seeing them live for the first time when they were due to play this festival in 2023, having made their first appearance here, way down on the line-up poster, in 2018. That performance was cancelled due to storms and torrential rain, so it was great to have the opportunity to finally see them this year. I’ve really enjoyed their records and watching the band reach a much more mainstream audience and recognition over the last couple of years with their infectious Afrobeat-infused, jazz-inspired music. I’m somewhat reluctant to say that the live performance wasn’t as exciting as I had expected. I’m inclined to draw comparisons with the performances of Jas Kayser & Chums and Impossible Conversations, bands who featured on our drummer-led Up!Beat series at the beginning of this year and I felt delivered more musically interesting performances. Nonetheless, they filled Moseley Park with a couple of thousand people dancing into the night with a rare instrumental headline act for this festival, to music that we don’t hear enough of live, and for that, I love ‘em.

DAVE FULLER
Instigator, Music Spoken Here, Worcester.
http://www.musicspokenhere.club

 

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