CAMILLA GEORGE AND FRIENDS AT THE CUC WINE BAR
Camilla George
If the Gods of Groove got together to devise an ultra-vibrant addition to the jazz scene – they would come up with Camilla George. Young beautiful and black, with an original African input to her material, she is just what today’s jazz needs to complete its journey from all-male line ups to the kind of ensemble with contemporaneity and class.
What an act to kick off the Cambridge International Jazz Festival. In her fantastic red dress and matched scarlet hair band Camilla George cuts a dashing figure on saxophone. She fronts up a band well stocked with talent. Nine whole days to go and this remarkable group have given a joyous oomph to the Festival already. She and her merry men played at the CUC wine bar next to a chilly looking river that had long lost any memory of its summer glory. It was a dank November evening .The sharp East wind whipped in from Siberia, across the Fens and right into our bones .Yet the temperature inside the Bar was on the rise. Exuberant hardly covered it. Here was a posse of slick but fresh musicians with an original vibe and the skill to bring it home to an eager audience – right across the demographic.
The band offers more than most in originality. Camilla makes many references to her West African heritage and the creation myths of her tribe. Here they all are woven into the funky fabric of the music “He Lion’ their second number thrums with an out-of-this-continent rhythm yet ‘The most useful Slave’ is melancholic and dreamy. For me it brings the slavery sorrows nearer to the heart, to hear these songs, some happy reflection of tribal life, others more mordant anthems of suffering, is to participate in an entire swathe of cultural life often sealed from Western thought, be it joyful or tragic. On their new album The People Could Fly - the title number echoes a West African children’s story where people kept captive could fly away and escape to a better world.
Winston Clifford on drums brought a magical exuberance to the sets: Daniel Casimir with his classic upright double bass and then in the second half electric guitar-style drew a seriously impressive foundation under all the numbers fro time to time he emerged to show his technique in some delightful solos. The ‘ecletric’ no mis spell intended- guitar masterfully played by Ashton Sellars showed what a brilliant jazz player could do – it was his first gig with the group – to bring a melodic but upbeat feel to the ensemble.
Camilla George herself was fabulous on sax. She is an intuitive player who works with the formidable rhythms laid down by her bassist to create a soul-stirring vibe. She finished in an encore with a tribute to Wayne Shorter, a humorously stop-start arrangement which didn’t apparently know where to end. By that time, her audience wanted her to just play on and on forever.
The Cambridge International Jazz Festival plays on for nine more event-filled days all over town.
Don’t miss a minute of it.
