Music / Reviews
Review: A Change Is Gonna Come, Bristol Old Vic
Bristol-based Sound UK curated this gig at Bristol Old Vic. Inspired by the music of the American Civil Rights movement and fronted by four leading black female musicians: Carleen Anderson (keyboards and vocals), Nikki Yeoh (keyboards), Lady Sanity (rap) and Camilla George (sax).
The evening opens with John Coltrane’s Alabama instrumental, setting an immediate improvised jazz vibe underpinned by freestyle drums, bass and keyboard, with George’s complex sax shapes floating over the top. Lady Sanity delivers the next number at speed, Gill Scott Heron’s classic The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. “There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down brothers on the instant reply,” raps out Lady Sanity, punching her fist in the air on the final line: “The revolution will be LIVE!”
The incredible Ms Carleen Anderson
The audience warms up further when Anderson tells us she always feels at home in Bristol: she’s headlined the Bristol Jazz & Blues Festival several times and her son lives here. Not even the cold and sore throat she’s fighting off – “I sound more like Barry White than Minnie Ripperton tonight!” – can take the edge off the chocolatey richness of her voice. It’s not hard to understand why Amy Whitehouse famously said that everyone should hear Carleen Anderson sing at least three times in their lives.
is needed now More than ever
The quintet gives Marvin Gaye’s What’s going on an almost experimental outing, followed by Anderson’s rendition of the Civil Rights anthem Oh Freedom. Anderson’s phrasing of the lines “Before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave” and “The chains bind my feet but they cannot bind my soul” is spine-tinglingly emotive. One of the best songs of the night is Nina Simone’s Four Women, an ode to the differing skin tones of black female archetypes.
Alongside some new compositions, the gig offered an eclectic take on old protest songs by seeking to interpret them artistically and almost experimentally, rather than simply reproducing them. The audience responded with a standing ovation, drawing a reprise of Lady Sanity’s You can make my past but you can’t make my future as an encore that got the whole house up on its feet dancing and singing along.
A Change Is Gonna Come is a fitting part of BOV’s Year of Change; an emotive performance that attracted an ethnically diverse audience to the theatre. In the words of Sam Cooke, this change has been a long time coming.
Read More: Bristol’s Week in Jazz, July 22-28
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