Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Find me weak, find me strong, I get all messed up whenever you call..
Instant karma: buying Christmas presents in HMV over the weekend and spotting a solitary copy of Lewis Taylor's eponymous 1996 CD, saving me the bother of going online and ordering it through Amazon. This is now the 3rd copy I've bought, after lending/loaning/losing the other copies to other people after they too became intoxicated by LT's jazzy, soulful exploration of a fractured heart/mind. This latest copy has already left one friend of mine wide-eyed and converted, and I've got tickets to see him at the Camden Jazz Café in January as well (going with Lee from Müf / Kaldera, who features on LT's website as one of his "friends"). He seems to get dismissed as a UK version of Prince in the press/media, but to be honest LT makes Marvin Gaye look like cheap pop rubbish. And I love Marvin Gaye. The former has been name-checked by the cool and trendy without ever troubling the mainstream and given his shy and retiring nature this isn’t likely to change (the upcoming Camden shows will most likely be his only live shows this year) so to have tickets to see him make me as excited as a politician in a gimp mask.
His debut CD "Lewis Taylor" (released on Virgin, all his other CD's can be bought via his website) was recorded and performed by the man himself in his bedroom and slides seamlessly between Stevie Wonder jazz funk to r'n'b via dub, hip hop beats and Smoky Robinson/Teddy Riley vocals with some classic prog self-indulgence thrown in for good measure. Oh, and he plays guitar like Ernie Isley, too. I've gone on about him before, no doubt I'll go on about him again (review of Jan gig will definitely be forthcoming) - if you like soul/jazz you need to check him out.
As Mikey says, lots of good gigs happening in Reading this week - After Dark action with Six Nation State, Heartwear Process and Sandcreek Massacre: Pelican being "monsterously heavy" at the Face Bar, Club Velocity on Friday and another landing party from the 'Ding hits London on Sat as well. Go out and hug your local musicians, they aren’t half as bad as they smell. Personally, I have band obligations myself this week, writing, rehearsing and a Christmas curry on Thursday down in Portsmouth! Then I'm having Christmas dinner with some friends on Friday, and Christmas hangovers on Sat morning. Will be nice to leave the rehearsal rooms and get stuck into some vino instead (tho the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive - if it was a Venn diagram, there'd definitely be some middle grouping). I haven’t been particularly good this year, and Santa knows it. I'll be lucky to get an orange in my stocking this year..
His debut CD "Lewis Taylor" (released on Virgin, all his other CD's can be bought via his website) was recorded and performed by the man himself in his bedroom and slides seamlessly between Stevie Wonder jazz funk to r'n'b via dub, hip hop beats and Smoky Robinson/Teddy Riley vocals with some classic prog self-indulgence thrown in for good measure. Oh, and he plays guitar like Ernie Isley, too. I've gone on about him before, no doubt I'll go on about him again (review of Jan gig will definitely be forthcoming) - if you like soul/jazz you need to check him out.
As Mikey says, lots of good gigs happening in Reading this week - After Dark action with Six Nation State, Heartwear Process and Sandcreek Massacre: Pelican being "monsterously heavy" at the Face Bar, Club Velocity on Friday and another landing party from the 'Ding hits London on Sat as well. Go out and hug your local musicians, they aren’t half as bad as they smell. Personally, I have band obligations myself this week, writing, rehearsing and a Christmas curry on Thursday down in Portsmouth! Then I'm having Christmas dinner with some friends on Friday, and Christmas hangovers on Sat morning. Will be nice to leave the rehearsal rooms and get stuck into some vino instead (tho the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive - if it was a Venn diagram, there'd definitely be some middle grouping). I haven’t been particularly good this year, and Santa knows it. I'll be lucky to get an orange in my stocking this year..
# posted by AK @ 13:30 
