Music / Jazz
Review: Broken Brass Ensemble, Lantern
As a snowswept Bristol was slowly grinding to a halt a white Transit van full of Dutch jazz energy had made its way across the channel and down the M4 to the Colston Hall. When the official start time for this gig arrived it looked embarrassingly likely that the eight-strong Broken Brass Ensemble might outnumber their audience. But, happily, as if by magic, when the band appeared so did the people and almost immediately the party started.
Nick Feenstra letting rip
It’s 20 years since the Youngblood Brass Band kicked over the traces of brass band conventions and in that time there’s been countless acoustic brass acts combining New Orleans style with hip-hop and rock beats with crowd-pleasing effects. At first sight of the hyperactive Broken Brass Ensemble capering about the stage to a pumping sousaphone beat it felt like deja vu all over again, but as the music unfolded it became clear that this was something a lot truer to the jazz story than their UK and US competition.
Hendrik Baarda pumping it out
So there was the expected nod to Rage Against The Machine, a wonky bit of Ethiopiques funk and even a slamming bit of techno (each of which got a great audience response) but then there was the Ellingtonian swing of Baby’s Gone and Voodoo Mama, the latter a showcase for Nick Feenstra’s Adderly-influenced alto sax as well as a fine upbeat sousaphone interlude from Hendrik Baarda. The one funk number – Got The Funk – started very convincingly but eventually melted into a smooth two-step reminiscent of an 80s cop show theme, as though their heart wasn’t into the genre thing.
is needed now More than ever
Another Broken Brass face off
Looking (or listening) beyond the on-stage antics and various imaginative audience participation ploys however – and there was nothing wrong with any of that – what stood out was the rootedness of the playing and the intelligence of the arrangements that used classic trumpet vs trombone counterpoint to great effect, sharpened perhaps by the liberal deployment of effects pedals. Brass Brothers, for instance had moments that were almost orchestral . And when they finally came to their one unadulterated New Orleans number – the encore, I’ll Fly Away – it got the full funeral treatment, i.e. a solemn statement that burst into joyful life and, inevitably, led to them processing off the stage and into the audience. For that one the five brass voices each took their own path in the kind of energetic chaos that made Kid Ory’s band so great.
It was a thoroughly entertaining evening that had people dancing to some top notch solos – trumpeter Ruud Riemersma and trombonist Arjen Attema also particularly shone at times – and there was no doubt it was worth the chilling trudge homeward through a strange and silently whitened city. I don’t know why they picked their name but their kind of good time jazz certainly ain’t broke – and certainly don’t need fixing, neither.
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