Nomadic Massive (photo: Blake Morneau)
By Blake Morneau
When one thinks of the word “jazz” there’s a picture that often comes to mind. Nicely dressed people on stage playing their instruments while nicely dressed people in the audience watch attentively, clapping politely after each solo display of musical prowess. Even with the edges left on, jazz, in the pantheon of genres, seems like one of the most arcane, challenging genres around. But luckily for those of us who stand mystified at the walls of jazz, it’s also a genre whose tentacles have reached into almost every major genre that exists today, in some form or another. Those were the parts of the Victoria International Jazz Festival I was looking for this year. Those back alleys where politeness isn’t even thought about; where groove and rhythm overwhelm and get a bit nasty. And the festival didn’t disappoint, serving up quite a spread of raw, sweaty musical goodness.
Lady (photo: Blake Morneau)
You might not know the name Nicole Wray, but you’ve heard her voice. She’s worked with Missy Elliot, Kid Cudi, The Black Keys and was a major contributor on that legendary Blakroc album. Even going in with little to no knowledge of her Lady catalogue, Wray and her band put on a neo-soul clinic. Heavy bass lines and piercing horn flourishes laid the groundwork for Wray’s brand of nu-R&B. Songs like “Get Ready” and “Tell the Truth” are classic-sounding soul tracks that have enough of that modern soul slickness to sound unique and invigorating. With her dynamic voice and magnetic smile, Wray and her band delivered a smoking set of soul music that set the tone for the festival.
Maceo Parker (photo: Blake Morneau)
With a career spanning over 45 years under his belt, it would be easy for Maceo Parker to treat his live shows like a victory tour, simply blowing a few notes on his sax while his band plugged away, taking time in between to bask in the love of a well-earned fan base. And while Parker most certainly did take time to bask, the legendary sax-man (James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic) definitely didn’t blow just a few notes. Parker blew his sax and funk flute with power and passion while leading his band like a well-studied field general. The 75-year-old Parker was a seemingly endless well of energy, jiving with his band for two and half hours with a performance that seemed to span almost half of the history of black music, and had the entire crowd sweating from every pore.
Nomadic Massive (photo: Blake Morneau)
Storming out of Montreal, Nomadic Massive proved why they’re one of the most important groups working in Canadian hip-hop today. With a five-piece band and six vocalists, Nomadic Massive reaffirmed my belief in two great, seemingly dying pieces of hip-hop culture: the idea of a true collective with equal parts creating a powerful whole, and the return of the music to its African roots that gained such groundswell in the ’90s with Native Tongues, Arrested Development, etc. Add to that powerful, intelligent lyrics and two top-notch female singer/MCs (Nantali Indongo and Meryem) and Nomadic Massive further crystallizes into a powerful display of the positive force that hip-hop can be in the world. If there is any justice in hip-hop, these cats will be hitting festivals and gigs all over the world, spreading that good, good love they gave Victoria a taste of.
Ganga Giri (photo: Blake Morneau)
Looking like some kind of hippied-out Freddy Krueger, yirdaki (the traditional name for a didgeridoo, learn yourself) master Ganga Giri provided the most enthrallingly bizarre performance of the week with his spaced-out, hynpo-tribal good times music. With only two other performers on stage, compared to his often five- or six-person support, Giri’s set get bogged down into monotony a couple of times. But these moments were mostly brief ,with the group shifting between bouncy, percussion-driven tracks and dense, menacing grooves that can only be described as Didg-step. It was a strange and exhausting end to one of the grooviest weeks of music I’ve experienced in a long time.
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