Imperial Wharf Jazz Festival part 2.

 

As dusk fell over Imperial Wharf, YolanDa Brown started to play and a whole new crowd came in. She's a multi MOBO (Music Of Black Origin) award winner;

With an array of Saxophones and a radio mike, Yolanda filled the Wharf with her sound and a couple of times came out into the crowd as she played too.

 

 

Wow!

Exciting stuff; if perhaps just a bit too smooth for me. The crowd loved her. And I mean they loved her. 

 

There'd been plenty of dancing during the day;

  

 

 



But by nightfall it was time for some real dancing.

It was time for Salsa;

I definitely couldn't get them all in, there really are twenty of them; the famed Roberto Plas and his twenty piece orchestra. 

This is the maestro himself on drums;

Leading his orchestra and singers from the front, it's very Latin;

Every so often he would be shouting, cajoling, pointing or poking with a drumstick;

Amazing sounds, absolutely amazing rhythms, did I mention there was dancing!

And suddenly it was all over. the end of a fabulous day.

Thank you Sharon for being there, for Manju and Girdeep and for all the boiled eggs and tuna salad sandwiches too!
   
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home:   helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

And then I had this picture which I wasn't going to use because it didn't come out good (on my old pawn shop camera) but then I decided to use it any way.

It's YolanDa Brown's backing singers;

Imperial Wharf Jazz Festival 2014; part one.

Just getting back to Imperial Wharf for the Jazz festival was a real 'punch the air' feeling for me. The bonus was a whole day of Jazz, an array of bands and styles quite outside what I'm used to.

That's why we were there.

A great day.

It didn't start out that way - the first act involved a Ukelele, a Banjolele and some comical trousers. If you know me you'll know that's not for me.

And they were only too prepared to do an encore. It nearly needed security to carry them off the stage.

Heck, I'd have done it for free.

At least this was a familiar face; the anchor was BBC Radio London's Jumoke Fashola who brightened up the whole day as she always does. 

 

 

It soon got interesting, the second band up were 'GoGo Penguin' from Manchester and currently very fashionable; I saw Wayne Hemingway the 'style commentator' on the table next to us. I'm available for tips, Wayne.

  

  



They gave us a wide range of musical influences beginning with some evocative Tibetan 'singing bowls' and the dreamy sounds of Trip Hop/Massive Attack followed by some very definite 90's dance beats.

Nice percussion;

Next up came 'The Lianne Carroll Trio', this was more conventional jazz. 

Lianne gave us some gutsy vocals and a range of songs with even wider influences than the GoGo's; a lot of Tom Waits, some Dr Nina Simone and Donald Fagen's 'Goodbye look' and 'Walk between the Raindrops' which are from his solo 'Nightfly' album.

If you don't know it, check it out.

"Very listenable" according to Robyn G. May.

Here's Lianne at the piano;

 

By late afternoon we started to get spoilt;

Antonio Forcione was playing virtuoso acoustic guitar; wonderful sounds backed up with some tremendous percussion from the Brazilian Adriano Adewale;

 

 Apart from the drums, here we got birdsong and the sound of rain from rattling seed pods; electrifying.

 

 

 

 

 

Dusk was falling and the music was getting livelier.

 

I needed an injection and then I was ready for the last two acts - I'll do them tomorrow.

 

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

 





Boiled eggs and Tuna salad sandwiches.

This is the view you get if you are a millionaire; a member of the new London kleptocracy living in expensive riverside flats.

Mind you, if you were living at Chelsea Harbour which is further upstream to our left, you’d be a Russian Billionaire.

This is Imperial Wharf; it’s just gangstas and dealers, thieves and everyday businessmen.

These are the yachts - over on the other side of the river you can just make out the helicopter landing - nice and convenient.

We’re boiling eggs and Robyn’s making dozens of Tuna salad sandwiches. There’s Lager and a cigar.

Mmmmmmmh!

It’s a party.

We’re on our way to The Imperial Wharf Jazz Festival. It’s here every year, St. George the builder/property speculators put it on for us specially.

Last year it was such a big deal for me; if you’d offered me a concert (Jazz, that is) to die for, that would have been it – the amazing Larry Stabbins (of Working Week fame) and The James Taylor Quartet – purveyors of Soul, Jazz and Funk on the Hammond organ.

It was also such an achievement just to be there.

Today?

I’m OK for a little while, when I wasn’t last year.

And I made it back too and that’s special.

This afternoon I’ll be uploading some photo’s of the day – it was fun.

It was a lot of fun!

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

The bouncers made me dance, no really - it wasn't my fault.

Is it soul ?

Is it jazz ?

Is it funk ?

No, It’s a soul jazz groove

As night fell, the mighty Hammond organ was hauled onto the stage by three blokes. And I mean a fully mechanical, built like a bus, weight of an Elephant Hammond organ not some plastic keyboard with a ‘Hammond’ button on the computer.

I mean the Hammond organ of Jimmy Smith.

The Hammond organ of Hitsville USA – that’s MoTown.

The Hammond organ of Booker T and the M.G.’s.

And then, without much of an introduction The James Taylor Quartet were playing – and I was sat at a table in the front row, just feet away. Here’s the man himself;

 

 

James Taylor

 

Except that almost immediately the bouncers were at us and stole our table heater, then they came back and took our table – then our chairs.  I got the impression they didn't want me there either.

So really, they made me do it; I just had to dance. Then again, I didn’t need much of an excuse.  After all, it’s a Soul jazz groove. This was a special night.

Here’s a shot of the band I took from the front. Would that be from the ‘Mosh-pit’ I wonder? 

 

  

 

The JTQ

 

And there’s only one way to describe this, the photo doesn’t do you justice sir!

 

 

 

Murder on the dance floor

 

It was fantastic, especially when they fired up Booker T’s ‘Green Onions’. And it wasn’t just the Quartet – there was a brass section – of course there was. And a vocalist, which meant we got a couple of the hits from back in the 1980’s.

Mmmmmh, beeehave!

You know, if someone had said to me;

 “We are going to give you a perfect day – just for you. It’s going to be cool and fashionable, there’ll be a good audience but it won’t be too crowded. Bring your own food, bring your own beer. We don’t mind.

We’ll give you a seat in the front row and there’ll be a bit of dancing, if you want.

The weather will be good; not too hot, not too cold. There won’t be any rain. It might as well be Milan or Rome or Paris.

You can choose your favourite music of the last 30 years and it’ll sound as good as new, played by the best musicians in the world.

Oh, and it’ll all be free of charge – just turn up on the day – if you feel like it”

Could that ever happen?

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

A foot in both camps

If you thought it was cold north of the Arctic Circle – think again. If the long winter nights are getting you down in that Antarctic research station. Forget it. On Saturday there was only one place to be:

  The coolest place on earth

Yeah, that’s Chelsea man.

As I was waiting for Larry Stabbins new band, while the roadies were setting up, the feedback sounded like gunfire. All around there was a silence for a moment while all the gangsters and their bodyguards jumped out of their skins in the luxury restaurants and jewellery shops all around us.

I was watching a stage set in the long space between two luxury blocks of flats in ‘new Chelsea’ – thieves town.

I was so struck by the similarity with the 1980’s – which for some people was all about making (stealing) as much money as they could, as quickly as they could get away with it.

Other people like me were fighting back – on picket lines and on the streets. Mostly battles lost, which is why things are so bad now. Sorry about that, we tried our best.

And while the music reflected the lust for cash, there were some rebels, even after Punk was dead.

There was a vibrant Jazz dance scene – a Black and White groove, on the edge and late in the night. The bands that wrote the soundtrack to those nights made their money by day playing for the rich, by night playing for us.

Working Week (I’ve written about them before) were the best and the most political. Larry Stabbins was uncompromising on the Sax.

And here he is:

 

When the band fired up, the first piece was full of the Latin rhythms, the fire and Stabbins screaming Saxophone. I was back in time. Back in Kentish Town, back at Ronnie’s. That sound was unmistakable.

Zoe Rahman was electrifying on piano, worthy of her recent Music of Black Origin (MOBO) award, while the Conga playing and the drums were a treat.

The Week had a foot in both camps, always a dangerous place to be.

It was over far too quickly for me with ‘Soul Train’, a great Working Week set piece, full of rhythm and life.

My friend turned up as Zara McFarlane was getting in full swing and he got a table for me right up at the front – ringside seat!

Here she is:

 

It was a blend of Soul and Jazz that was right for dusk, and she's a bit of a Diva:

 

And for good measure I can’t resist putting in this beautiful shot:

 There’s more to come. The night had hardly started.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Woke up it was a Chelsea Morning.

I am so wasted. Just so wasted.

It’s Sunday morning, grey September skies.

Last night I could have been celebrating the Autumn Equinox. Or I could have gone to see the SkaSouls playing at Mr Bumble in Camberley – the best venue, the best band. I felt bad about missing that.

And now here I am, in a wheelchair, covered in a warm blanket, clutching a glass of warm milk. When’s my next pill?

At least I’ve got something to look forward to.

No Way!

I’m back from a great night.  No I think you had better make that a great day and a night out. Everything hurts, I mean really hurts. This time I don’t think anything is ever going to get better.

I’m old, I’m ill, life shouldn’t be this fun.

I made it to The Imperial Wharf Jazz festival. I’ve staggered home with a head full of memories, a camera full of pictures, lost my voice, got ringing ears and did I mention that everything hurts? Even the pain is complaining.

The thing is, it was the Bouncers who forced me to dance……

Woke up it was a Chelsea morning

….. and the first thing that I heard

Was a song outside my window, and the traffic wrote the words

It came a-reeling up like Christmas bells, and rapping up like pipes and drums

 

Oh, won't you stay

We'll put on the day

And we'll wear it 'till the night comes

 

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I saw

Was the sun through yellow curtains, and a rainbow on the wall

Blue, red, green and gold to welcome you, crimson crystal beads to beckon

 

Oh, won't you stay

We'll put on the day

There's a sun show every second

 

Now the curtain opens on a portrait of today

And the streets are paved with passersby

And pigeons fly

And papers lie

Waiting to blow away

 

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I knew

There was milk and toast and honey and a bowl of oranges, too

And the sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses

Oh, won't you stay

We'll put on the day

And we'll talk in present tenses

Joni Mitchell

I nearly didn’t make it – I’d put together a really good plan and they never work out; do the chores, get to the Chemist, cook lunch, arrange for people to phone my Mum to make sure she’s OK while I’m out, drive up to Clapham Junction to park for free, catch a train just one stop to cross the river…and I’m in Chelsea. None of it worked out – no trains (a suicide), then I found one going my way and it didn’t wait for me.

A limp and a walking stick, 20 platforms and a thousand milling people.

Of course it’s not Chelsea Chelsea, this is a recent development of luxury flats for business people, Bankers and similar villains. Next door is ‘Chelsea Harbour’, built on the site of Fulham Power station and where the ‘New Russians’, the oligarchs and the ‘Thieves in Law’ live. Also some of our very own thieves and celebrities. Underneath it’s all poisoned land – this was an old industrial area, polluted for a hundred years. So they capped it all off with cement and built luxury flats – for some of the people who did all the poisoning.

When I got there the Mercedes and Range Rovers were leaving. There were helicopters overhead. If you ever wondered where the Taxi’s went – they come here.

The four-wheeled drives of the footballers wives.

Here’s the menu;

Saturday 21st September

 

Congo Faith Healers 1.00 pm

 

Combining down and dirty swamp infested gypsy blues

with wild savage guitar playing and voodoo vocals.

An intense and utterly compelling live show.

 

Kairos 4tet 2.30 pm

 

Best Jazz Act MOBO award winning band Kairos 4tet generate a

captivating blend of melodic beauty and pin sharp improvisation.

 

Anthony Strong 3.45 pm

 

Hailed as “England’s next jazz superstar”, he performs

a mix of classic jazz songs and swinging originals.

 

Stonephace Stabbins Feat. Zoe Rahman 5.00 pm

 

Working Week’s saxophonist Larry Stabbins brings

a blistering energy to a fiery new quintet that features

MOBO jazz award winner Zoe Rahman.

 

Zara McFarlane 6.45 pm

Positioned neatly between the twin worlds of modern jazz and

eclectic nu-soul, Zara is a very special young voice on the UK scene.

 

JTQ 8.30 pm

 

For a quarter of a century, the James Taylor Quartet has set

the standard for the coolest sounds in funky acid jazz.

From Clapham Junction, West

Brompton or Shepherd’s Bush

take the London Overground train

to Imperial Wharf. Extensive car

parking available.

The Boulevard, Imperial Wharf,

Townmead Road, London SW6 2QD

 

Book your table now…

Relax in style at one of the exciting restaurants

whilst enjoying mellow and up-beat sound

from some of the world’s finest musicianscians.

 

But that doesn’t do any of it justice. This was a meeting of the clans. A tribal gathering.

There was a good number of faces I know from the London jazz scene, dotted around. There were the old MODS, that’s me.

 

There was an obvious presence from the 1980’s Jazz Dance scene. They’d come to see Larry Stabbins. Perhaps a bit older, a bit slower than I remember, but hey, you know what they say – the last thing to go is the punch.

 

There were a lot of black faces – there was a strong soul/funk element to the day.

 

Heck, there were even a lot of young people coming in and spoiling it all for us old guys. Mind you, they don’t know how to dress! I must admit I was putting on the style.

Don’t you love this picture of some of the Jazzers arriving?

 

 

Cool hats dudes, almost as good as mine.

And this is the first act I saw, The Kaira 4tet, with a special guest vocalist Emilia Martez (and she was good).

 

 

Not lively enough for my taste, but nice stuff to start the day off with and to my amazement I ended up with a seat and a view about 25 metres from the stage.

 

Did I mention there was beer?

 Unfortunately, I have always acted as a magnet for security – and today the Bouncers were buzzing around me like wasps – picking up bottles and cans from the tables around me in case I started a riot, giving me the eye. I was talking to my friend Theo later – we decided that in bouncer school they are given an identikit photo of me, like the FBI shoot at silhouettes of Dillinger on the firing range.

 

This is Anthony Strong:

 I’d describe it as ‘lounge jazz’, but the best I’ve ever heard. A few original numbers and a lot of cool standards; ‘Steppin’ Out’, ‘Dancin’ Cheek to Cheek’, ‘Luck be a lady’, you get the idea.

I’d say he was trying to be Jamie Cullum without the excitement, but musically – pretty hot stuff.

It was only a trio today (missing a trumpeter and it showed) but the drums, bass and pianist delighted in really tight, really well rehearsed jumps and switches that so impressed me.

 

Mmmmm, that’s Jazz.

I’m going to split this into another section, I need some coffee now.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)