What is hip? Goodfellas and What Is Hip!!!

Last Saturday night was the second edition of On the One. The concept so far seems to be a triptych of bands that play any style of funk, soul and a pinch of blues in a frame of contemporary spinning.

The objective appears to get the feet moving.

Regretfully for last Saturday’s three fold canvas the first panel fell a bit short with the band showing up an hour late and even then they had to play without their rhythm section until the last song.

A good thing was that there was not really a wait. The general atmosphere at Timbre at the Substation was great

and the DJ spinned the kind of music that kept up the spirit.

In al honesty the dance floor  seemed to be filling up only at the time the second act, Goodfellas, was scheduled to play, but at that time it did get really full. I ‘d never seen Goodfellas play, although I’ve seen their name announced regularly and I heard they had a great reputation. The turn out on the dance floor was proof of that.

 

Due to the fact that we had decided to have our food at Timbre as well, and table seating was slim pickings at the time we arrived, we were a bit tucked away to the side. Initially this held me back from taking out my camera but then thought the angle and the constructing type effect of the stage metal work was kind of nice I took some pictures anyway. 

 As far as Goodfellas was concerned I was very much impressed with what the two front men presented vocally.

 

 

, the genre was of course funk and a lot of 70ies soul. Earth Wind and Fire kind of stuff.

 

After Goodfellas it was the turn of What is Hip. A 10 piece soul band with a real brass section 

like the one the real Earth Wind and Fire had and that’s also the style this band presented. Differently for sure, and no matter how real a keyboard sounds now a days. Real brass with real faces and real energy just makes it more cool to me. Call me old fashioned. 

  I do think though that those 30 odd people that left after Goodfellas were done, made a mistake.

 I don’t want to fill up the post with names, which is likely to happened with a 7 an 10 person line up but am dedicating this post to one man. I missed his Graduate gig last Wednesday at Blu Jaz, and was pleasantly surprised to see that Nicholas Sanjay Zavior was part of What is Hip. After a bit of the crowd left and we could more easily move our way forward I was able to make a couple of close ups. So here’s saying sorry I missed your Graduate Gig.

WAB and the funky machine: What A Blast!

In my previous post Qilin Quartet + Darren Moore and Suresh Vaidyanathan. Sultan Sunrise I mentioned there were 2 events in that week that were worth a special mention. Due to lethargy I did not yet get round to sharing the second one till now. This one had an additional unusual aspect because it was held in the Aliwal Arts Centre. A new location for us to enjoy live music. It is – also – located in the Kampong Glam area, in fact almost directly next to the Sultan Hotel, but with its main entrance at Aliwal Street. It is described to be a multi-disciplinary arts centre with an emphasis on performing arts. The event was brought to my attention by Andayoma, (Andayoma - Sheer Elegance) and I am so glad she did. WAB and the funky machine was fantastic entertainment.

 WAB was invited over from France by the A Cappella Society of Singapore. It was the same event that introduced us last year to the amazing beat-boxer from Finland, Felix Zenger. 

The occasion was The International A Cappella Festival Singapore, featuring several voice artists like; again Felix Zenger, Tobias Hug and the earlier announced WAB. 

  From the name you would think WAB and the funky machine would be a ten piece band with at least several bras instruments. However in the true spirit of a cappella, it’s a one man band with only Habib Julien’s vocal cords as instrument. I guess what the Funky Machine stands for, lies on the floor in front of Habib.

  A, probably, carefully selected set of electronic equipment that loops the different vocal imitations of various musical instruments into the funky rhythms. WAB carefully put these layers together until it is a rich instrumental blend of rhythm to support his songs. The tunes vary in genre from rap to reggae. Lyrics are often times in French. Lyrics with a story to tell, interesting and socially aware, at least based on what I could make out of it.

  Next to thoroughly enjoyable music, WAB puts up a very incredible visual performance. With strong facial expressions,

 intense eyes,

  it appeared almost a mime show. 

Of course WAB did break the vow of silence required for mime, but he did stay true to the rules of a cappella!!

 

 

Qilin Quartet + Darren Moore and Suresh Vaidyanathan. Sultan Sunrise

Last week was a bit busy for us. We went to the gallery opening of Vertical Horizons at the Artistry, a show displaying some stunning and alternative, views of Hong Kong. We saw a capoeira show at the Istana park, a book fair in the national museum, and several music bars including a revisit to the Sportsman. There are two music events in particular that I wanted particularly to make note off. I hope to share some details about them in my next two posts.

 The first one of the two events, that I felt were particularly interesting, was at Sultan Jazz club last Tuesday (15 Oct) evening. It was announced as Double Bill. This turned out to be two sets for two different sets of performers.

The first set was The Qilin Quartet a wonderful instrumental band with:

Kailin Yong leading on violin

 Wei Xiang on piano

 Felix Phang on bass

Pablo Calzado on drums.

It was a set of cool tunes driven by the funky vibes off of Kailin’s violin, an unusual instrument on the Singapore jazz scene but next to the flute definitely one of my favorites.

While Felix and Wei played a solid set with really interesting solos...

it was Pablo who at times went wild on his drums and percussion instruments. It was as if he was extra inspired knowing what was to follow.

The second set was reserved for Darren Moore and Suresh Vaidyanathan. 

This was the in our opinion the rare piece that we had specifically wanted to see. I have heard Darren talk about Suresh often and have a copy of their collaborative album Territorium, but I had never heard or seen Suresh play live. 

I am particularly fascinated by the ghatam. I understand it is specifically designed as a percussion instrument though visually it is nothing other than a clay pot. In the hands of a skilled player like Suresh, this seemingly simple pot allows for an amazing variety of sound. The speed with which Suresh fingers are hammering down on that clay is so fast that he can make a drum roll flow like it was water from the ghatam’s domestic equivalent.  

Darren on drums played an equal role in the duet. He was highly concentrated in a relaxed way, and, at times, drove even more speed into the set. 

Playing clearly Indian inspired rhythms on a, what I would call “regular”, drum set gives them undeniably an extra dimension but when they are matched up by a virtuoso on a ghatam, it becomes and exiting duel between east and west. Or should I say east and further east to recognize Darren’s Australian origin.