The Kingdom Choir gave an excellent performance that delighted the Bournemouth audience.

This was the fourth time that my wife and I had seen the choir and the second time in ten days. Compared to the Royal Albert Hall performance, the choir was smaller and the venue was less iconic, but the music was of the same exceptionally high standard.

The sets were very similar. This time the guest choir was Vocability, a Bournemouth choir whose members were from school years 4-6. They performed their two songs well and won the hearts of the audience before the Kingdom Choir joined them to sing John Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’.

Once again, the highlight of the evening was the moving ‘Chases’ which begins with a solo from Stacey Sledge who is then joined by the choir with the song reaching a crescendo before finishing with Stacey’s solo voice. This song was written by the choir’s own Sharlene-Monique, who is one of several accomplished song-writers in the choir. Mariam Akintokun, Wayne Hernandez and Clinton Jordan are the others, whose songs I’ve heard but I suspect that there are others too.

The Aretha Franklin medley which included ‘Say A Little Prayer’, ‘Respect’ and ‘Natural Woman’ was a fine tribute to the ‘Queen of Soul’ during which Tracey Jane Campbell and Kim Samuels excelled.

The support act throughout the tour has been Phillipa Hanna whose openness about her battle with depression and how she found her faith and married the son of a preacherman, who is also her band, was endearing.

The Kingdom Choir have consolidated their reputation during the tour and it will be interesting to see what they do next.

 

 

 

 

The Fantastics thrilled their Pizza Express audience with a single ninety minutes set of top class jazz/soul/funk.

The set was split into four distinct quarters, the first and third showcasing their outstanding musicianship and the second and fourth the wonderful vocals and stage craft of Sulene Fleming.
The band featured leader Greg Boraman (organ and electric piano), James Byron (guitar), Raydn Hunter (bass), James Smith (drums) and the versatile Mark Norton (saxophone, flute, tambourine and harmonica). The instrumentals were high quality. ‘Pyramid’, ‘St. Tropez Blue’ and ‘Oblique’ were my personal favourites. Mark Norton’s versatility ensured that there was a variety in the feel of the songs.
When Sulene joined the band, her soaring vocal style demanded attention and she added a new dimension, which is hardly surprising considering that she has sung with the likes of Incognito, The Brand New Heavies and Citrus Sun. Her stage craft was excellent; she focussed on different members of the audience as she sang and this created a bond with them. I particularly enjoyed, ‘Say You Will’, ‘Hey Mister’, ‘Take A Shot’ and ‘Soul Child’ which were outstanding.
Anybody who enjoys jazz funk would enjoy listening to The Fantastics, who were talking of releasing a new album soon. Sulene Fleming, who is working on a solo project, is a singer well worth listening to.

This concert was a celebration of Beverley’s twenty-five years in the music business. It does not seem that long ago that Beverley released ‘Flavour of the Old School’ but, in the meantime, she has become a British soul icon and one the country’s best live performers.

The show started with the Leo Green Orchestra playing an overture of Beverley’s songs before Lee introduced Beverley who was greeted on stage by the first of many standing ovations from the audience. Beverley was visibly moved by her reception and started her performance with ‘Made It Back’ which led into ‘Greatest Day’. She continued with ‘Keep This Fire Burning’ and ‘Middle of Love’ before introducing ‘Sista Sista’ a song from her ‘Prodigal Sista’ album. She then spoke of a time in her life when she felt really low and her god-daughter’s mother told her how good a person she was, which inspired her to write the next song ‘Gold’, which is one of the best ballads that she has written. With the tempo slowed down Beverley moved on to a cover of Heatwave’s ‘Always and Forever’ before singing a new song ‘Now Or Never’ which had an upbeat disco feel to it.

Beverley then talked about her career in musicals singing ‘Memory’ (from Cats), Love Will Stand When All Else Falls (from ‘Memphis’) and ‘I Have Nothing’ and ‘I’m Every Woman’ (from The Bodyguard). These songs closed the first set.

At the beginning of the second set, Beverley took us back to her schooldays, when she wore glasses and had pigtails and she learned how to sing in public by singing in church, with a version of ‘His Eye Is On The Sparrow’ which was sung perfectly, acapella.  She dedicated this to her patents and family who were in the audience. She then sang ‘Flavour of the Old School’ followed by a tribute to one of her biggest influences Prince, a cover of  his song ‘The Cross’. Next came two new songs, one recently written ‘Wild River’ and one written a while ago with the late Rod Temperton ‘The Beat of You’, both demonstrated that Beverley is making a strong start to her next twenty-five years!

Next up were ‘Never Like This’ and Stevie Wonders ‘Lately’ which was a preview of her autumn tour with the Leo Green Orchestra showcasing Stevie’s songs. Beverley then launched into an energetic closing phase singing ‘Piece of My Heart’, ‘Soul Survivor’, ‘Black Butta’, ‘Hold On, I’m Comin” before closing with ‘Come as You Are’

This performance was remarkable for its length (both sets were over an hour), her energy, the power of her voice and for her humility, (she seemed genuinely overcome by the love shown for her by her adoring audience).

Beverley Knight  is fast becoming a British music institution.  I look forward to the next twenty-five years of her music. The concert was recorded for release as a live album and for broadcast by Radio 2, any fans of Beverley who missed the show will enjoy listening to the recording.

Emeli Sandé showcased her third album ‘Real Life’ and had most of her audience on their feet showing their appreciation.

In all my years of gigging, I can never recall anybody singing all the songs from an unreleased album at the start of a performance. This was the courageous step and it paid off.

My wife and I first became aware of Emeli Sandé in May 2010 when she was the support act for Alicia Keys. The role of the support act is a difficult one, playing in front of a half full audience most of whom are only at the venue to see the headliner. Very few artists shine in such circumstances but Emeli shone on this occasion and we have followed her progress ever since.

Before the music began, Emeli introduced her four piece band (guitar, bass, keyboards and drums) and her four backing singers. I am sorry to say that I cannot remember any of their names apart from keyboard player and musical director Nicky Brown, who we had last seen at the 606 Club in March playing keyboards for Anu Omideyi.

The first song from the album was ‘Human’ which began with Emeli on piano before she took centre stage. The songs on the new album showed many of the factors that have made her an outstanding artist.  She has a very recognisable voice, writes memorable melodies and meaningful lyrics all embellished with outstanding musical production.

Emeli sang with confidence and spoke about her personal journey in life that had influenced her new songs. When introducing ‘Extraordinary Being’, she spoke of her desire to empower her audience to have total belief in themselves. All eleven songs from the new album sounded good and several have the potential to be be hit songs. The final song was ‘Free As A Bird’ a moving song which was dedicated to her Aunty who had passed away earlier in the year.

After receiving an ovation for her new album, the band left the stage and Emeli sang ‘River’ totally unaccompanied. Once again this was a risk paid off. Emeli then moved to the piano and her backing vocalists crowded round to sing ‘Clown’ which was effective in its stripped down version. Emeli was then joined by her guitar player with his acoustic guitar and sang the little performed ‘Suitcase’ from her debut album.

The band returned but the acoustic guitar was still prevalent on a stripped back version of ‘Heaven’ before a fully instrumented version of ‘Read All About It’. Emeli then sang ‘Mountains’ dedicated to her parents, who were in the audience, and she thanked them for the sacrifices they made in raising her and her sister in the UK.

The show closed with a rousing version of ‘Next To Me’.

This was a top class performance from a highly talented singer/song-writer which oozed confidence.

 

 

The Kingdom Choir gave an exhilarating performance to the delight of a packed Royal Albert Hall audience.

The last time my wife and I saw the Kingdom Choir perform was in December 2016 at the 606 Club. This concert, on the exact anniversary of their performance at the Royal Wedding, would have filled the 606 Club for more than sixty shows.

The show opened with a rendition of ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ which segued into a version of Stormzy’s ‘Blinded By Your Grace pt2’. Wayne Hernandez then took the lead on Jon Legend’s ‘All Of Me’.

From the start the many voices of the choir sounded like a single voice with the strength of many. This was close to Gospel Choral Music perfection. Their voices created a feeling of joy amongst the audience.

Karen Gibson, the choir leader, introduced most of the songs and spoke of the whirlwind year that they have enjoyed since their Royal Wedding performance propelled them into the media spotlight.

They performed for two hours, showing their versatility and giving several choir members an opportunity to show their individual vocal talents. There is little doubt that every member is a highly competent solo singer but they all seemed happy to be part of this wonderful collective.

There was a beautiful medley of Aretha Franklin songs, one again illustrating that, although the Queen of Soul is no longer with us on earth, her music and memory will never die.

Karen Gibson gave her singers a brief break to give the St Anne’s Secondary School choir, from North London, an opportunity to perform on one of the world’s most iconic stages and they sang two songs confidently before they were joined by the Kingdom Choir for a version of John Farnham’s ‘The Voice’. Wayne Ellington and Stacey Skeete took the lead vocals on this number with the backing of over sixty voices.

The highlight of the show for me was a wonderful performance of the kingdom Choir’s own song ‘Chases’ on which Stacey Skeete took the lead. The covers they sang were superb but this song showed the choir’s harmonies at their best.

Toward the end of the show, the choir sang ‘Stand By Me’, the song that changed the lives of the choir, with Paul Lee singing the lead. This was followed by ‘Lullaby’ a song written by a choir member for the new royal baby. The choir left the stage after these songs and briefly Wayne Hernandez returned to the stage to lead the audience in the singing of some well-known gospel songs, he was soon joined by four more of the male vocalists, two of whom went up into the stalls to encourage participation.

The full choir then returned to sing ‘Lean on Me’ before taking their bows to rapturous applause.

The Royal Albert Hall has a great history and is my favourite larger venue, few artists get the chance to perform here, the Kingdom Choir seized their opportunity and gave a performance that will live long in the memory of both performers and their audience.

Carroll Thompson thrilled a packed Hideaway audience with an outstanding performance.

Carroll is the ‘Queen of Lovers Rock’; she recorded her first album in 1981 and is still filling venues and selling albums almost forty years later.

My wife and I first saw her perform in 2015 and have been fans ever since. We last saw her a year ago, when she co-hosted a celebration of the life of Claudia Fontaine who was her friend and backing vocalist.

Carroll is a charismatic performer with a beautiful voice and an ever present smile. She instantly creates a feel good atmosphere when she is on stage.

Carroll performed two sets; most of the songs were taken from her Lovers Rock albums. There were three songs from her album of Phyllis Dylon songs, the first of which was dedicated to her grandmother and the Windrush generation. There were three classic songs arranged in a Lovers Rock style: Diana Ross’ ‘Touch Me in the Morning’, Irma Franklin’s ‘Piece of my Heart ‘ and Kriss Kristoferson’s ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’. There was one very moving new song from Carroll’s forthcoming album.

My favourite song of the night was ‘Hopelessly In Love’ featuring the Hideaway choir on backing vocals.

Carroll had the support of a magnificent band: Adrian McKensie (keys), Peter Lee (Guitar), Megumi Mesaku (Sax), Colin McNeish (Bass0 and Kennrick Rowe (Drums).

The audience were superb singing along with Carroll’s most loved songs, they were loud and in tune, however a small minority irritated the remainder by incessantly chattering. A peer-reviewed announcement just before the second set reminding the audience to respect each other by keeping conversation to a minimum was cheered and applauded but the message was not heeded by the guilty few. It is a shame because Carroll deserved better.

Carroll Thompson is a great performer and deserves to be seen, I recommend that you go see her next show, but book early to avoid disappointment.

 

Noreen Stewart, so often a backing singer, took the lead singers microphone and showed that she is an accomplished singer.

Noreen took this gig at very short notice, taking over from Judith Sephuma who had travel issues and could not arrive at Hideaway in time. My wife and I had seen Noreen perform several times, once with Drizabone Soul Family and several times as a backing vocalist, most recently with Ivy Chanel in April.

Her performance was very strong as she showed the quality and range of her voice and the confidence to take well known songs and sing them in her own different way. The songs she chose (all were her favourites) were delivered in an impressive jazz-soul style. She was accompanied by just two musicians, a keyboard player and a drummer. She invited some of her friends on stage, Judith Lee and Ivy Chanel both sang one song each (‘Natural Woman’ and ‘At Last’) and Hannah a saxophonist accompanied her on two songs.

The set was not fixed, Noreen had a list of songs from which she selected but the choice of which of those to sing was made in the moment. Noreen built a good rapport with her audience and at times she showed her sense of humour.

The songs ranged from Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘Night and Day’ and Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ (which had a very jazzy feel to it) to Anita Bakers ‘Sweet Love’ and Jocelyn Brown’s ‘Somebody Else’s Guy’.

This was an enjoyable evening and Noreen deserves lots of credit for taking on the gig and giving a high quality performance.

This was a great night of music featuring high quality musicians and vocalists.

Mo Pleasure has an impressive CV. He has worked with Ray Charles, Earth Wind and Fire, Michael Jackson, Roberta Flack and Natalie Cole amongst others and is a multi -instrumentalist, song writer, musical director and producer. On the night the emphasis was not on Mo Pleasure, but on the band.  For most of the evening, the focus was on the musicians and the vocalists.

The first set opened with a lengthy instrumental on which Luke Smith (keyboard), Michael Brown (guitar), Tuca Milan (Percussion), Jack Pollitt (Drums) and Jamie Michael Harris (sax) were all given plenty of opportunity to show their prowess together with Mo on bass. My wife and I have seen Luke and Michael play countless times over the last ten years and this was a reminder of just how good they are. It is easy to take their talent for granted.

After the opening instrumental, the band were joined by lead vocalist, Ivy Chanel, and backing vocalists, Nathan Lewis and Lois Graham. They sang ‘Free’ (made famous by Deniece Williams), Ivy’s own ‘Carried Away’ and Mo’s ‘Crusin’ which featured in Spike Lee’s movie ‘Get On The Bus’ and was co-written with Phillip Bailey. That song ended the first set.

The musicians returned to play the Average White Band’s ‘Pick Up The Pieces’ with Mark Mondesir, one of the world’s great drummers, taking Jack Pollitt’s place. Mo had been a member of this band for a time.

Ivy then returned to the stage to sing Mo’s ‘Now That I’ve Found You with Jack back on drums. Mo, for once, was the centre of attention as he played the lengthy piano intro to the song. This showed that he is a wonderful pianist (Luke played bass on this song). It is a spectacular song and showed just how good a singer Ivy is, It demonstrated her range, power and control.

Three Luke Smith songs followed, ”True Love’, ‘Think Before You Leave’ and ‘Coming Home’.  The audience saw that Luke can not only play keyboards and bass, but he is also a good song-writer. Ivy and Nathan then sang ‘The Closer I Get To You’ before the show closed with Michael Jackson’s ‘Rock With You’.

The band received a very warm, well deserved, ovation from the audience.

Kandace Springs’ performance was outstanding. It demonstrated why she is one of the rising stars in the jazz/soul field.

My wife and I had last seen Kandace perform at the London Jazz Festival six months earlier. The show opened with ‘Novocane Heart’, a song co-written with Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers, from her debut album ‘Soul Eyes’. The audience was instantly engaged with the performer. This song was followed by ‘Breakdown’ from her second album ‘Indigo’ which she co-wrote with Jamie Hartman (who wrote ‘Human, Rag’n Bone Man’s hit song).
Kandace performed two set featuring songs from her first two albums and some covers of songs written by women who have been her influences and will feature on her forthcoming third album. Kandace was ably supported throughout by her band: Chris Gaskell (Double bass and Electric Bass) and Jeremy Dutton (Drums).
Kandace is very good at taking very well-known songs and interpreting them in her own, very believable, way. I remember, on the first occasion I saw her supporting Gregory Porter, how good her version of Ewan MacColl’s ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face was. On this night, it was the penultimate song of her second set. There were strong covers of Sade’s ‘Love Is Stronger Than Pride’, Lori Lieberman’s ‘Killing Me Softly’ and Michel Legrand’s ‘What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life’.
My favourite songs of the night were both from ‘Soul Eyes’, the Judi Tzuke composed ‘Place to Hide’ and Kandace’s own ‘The World Is A Ghetto’.
The show closed with ‘I Put A Spell On You’, which featured a lengthy piano introduction confirming that Kandace is an exceptionally good pianist, followed by ‘At Last’, the Etta James classic.
During the evening Kandace showed her sense of humour. She recounted a story about meeting Norah Jones by chance and how excited they both were. She told Norah about the concept of her third album and asked if Norah would sing a duet with her, Norah agreed, Kandace sang the song solo but did a Norah Jones impersonation when she got to her part. At the end of the show she teased the audience by appearing at the stage door three times and then closing the door before returning for her encore.

Kandace is a very talented singer, song-writer, pianist and performer who ought to enjoy a very successful musical career.

Wayne Hernandez’s tribute to Marvin Gaye showed that Marvin’s music still sounds fresh and current and will live forever more.

My wife and I have seen Wayne perform many times, but this is only the second time we have seen his Marvin show. I first became aware of Marvin’s music when I heard him sing ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ with Tammi Terrell, so it was fitting that this gig was held on the 74th anniversary of Tammi’s birth (sadly it is 49 years since she joined the celestial choir).

Unusually for Pizza Express, Wayne played one lengthy set (about one hundred minutes) rather than two shorter ones. This worked well with the audience.
The show opened with ‘Pride and Joy’, a song recorded early in Marvin’s career. Wayne has a great voice and it is ideally suited to sing Marvin covers. The band: Michael Brown (Guitar), Perry Melius (Drums), Emlyn Allarde (Keyboard) and Wayne Nunes (Bass) were able to recreate that distinctive Motown sound. The band played well as a unit and true to Motown tradition, they had little opportunity to play solos. Wayne had two of the UK’s finest backing vocalists Sam White and Vicky Akintola alongside him and they excelled, complimenting his vocals.
The set covered many of Marvin’s biggest hits including ‘How Sweet It Is’, ‘What’s Going On’, ‘Mercy Mercy Me (the Ecology)’ and ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’. The highlights for me were ‘You’re All I Need To Get By’ on which he sang a duet with Sam White and ‘Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing’, on which he sang with Vicky Akintola. (Both from originally recorded with Tammi Terrell on the ‘You’re All I Need’ Album). On the former song the audience were encouraged to join in with the chorus and their response was as impressive as any I’ve heard this year.
The show closed with an encore of ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ with Vicky and Sam sharing the female vocals.
The show was very well received, was highly enjoyable and is recommended.