Sitting listening to Troyka's new album Moxxy purchased last night after the packed gig at the Con Cellar last night.*
The Con Cellar is a great place to hear Jazz. I think I will be aiming to go back regularly. Tiny. Intimate. In fact, in some spots, the only way you could be closer to the band would be to be in the band. Or sitting in their laps.
Which made it a great spot for an acoustic set from George Crowley. I've seen his name around on twitter and various places, but only checked his website out briefly on-line yesterday. It's nice to come at artists fresh in the live arena with few preconceptions. And this one I will be revisiting. It may not be revolutionary, but Crowley's compositions & improvisations are melodic and heartfelt. At times delicate even. Perfect stuff for a summer's evening. All we need now is a summer to go with it.
An admirable add on of an excellently bonkers raffle followed in the intermission. I have to confess I did find being stared at by Barry Manilow from the cover of a vinyl greatest hits offered as a prize was somewhat disconcerting. And I definitely coveted the Middle Age Crazy board game. Who knew?
Then Troyka. I've been holding off buying Moxxy for a while, knowing that I would probably be checking out a gig at some point. Wow! For one thing, the snippets I've listened to on-line really don't prepare you for Kit Downes mastery of the keyboard. Recorded it's easy to assume that effect is created by post-production computer/recording wizardry of some kind. But the bleeps and bends really are produced by Downes's extraordinarily fleet fingers as they whip around not only the keys, but the buttons, dials, switches and wheels. Chris Montague seamlessly blends the loops and guitar that adds to the mix without losing subtlety. All underpinned by Josh Blackmore on drums completing the three way polyrhythmy. Echoes of many things - funk, rawwwwwk, blues, latin, an acorn electron singing in visual basic and of course jazz - woven into a very coherent whole. There's stuff to chew on here for a wide range of audiences. Let's hope Troyka reach them.
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* Admittedly packing out the Con Cellar is not particularly difficult. A couple of rugby teams (especially Rugby Union ones) would be about enough to do it.
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