Oddly last Saturday's gig by Lucky Peterson's trio in Basingstoke was held not in The Anvil but the smaller Haymarket Theatre. The gig was not very well advertised and the audience only filled about 60% of the venue - a provincial venue more suited to theatre. This was quite staggering because, for my money, Lucky Peterson is a great live act. Having seen him twice before at Vienne, this concert was billed as a homage to Jimmy Smith and whilst it started with Peterson at the Hammond organ playing "Back at the chicken stack" and probably represented him at his most jazz-orientated, he did switch to his electric guitar to perform a selection of classic blues performances including the ubiquitous "Dust my broom." I would have liked to have heard more of him playing the guitar as I quite like boisterous players like this - not too dissimilar in effect to someone like Sonny Sharrock.
I suppose that the switch to guitar was a sign of Lucky Peterson's almost dual musical personality for he unleashed a storm of violent riffs which represented the blues at their most potent and earthy. This was music to make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Other than a solo guitar outing for the last three numbers of the first set, Peterson was sat firmly at the organ with the guitar duties picked up by Keylin Crapp. The drummer's name was also unfamiliar but Crapp's Wes-influenced guitar was a highlight. The set evolved to feature a host of familiar material including "All Blues", a number of Soul classics like "Stand by me" and material associated with Jimmy Smith. It was a shame that audience was too small for Peterson to feed off but he worked really hard at getting everyone to sing along and clap on the off-beat. Combined, the two sets went on for the best part of three hours, over-running by some 40 minutes.
I must admit that I find Peterson an engaging personality and the gig clearly had more of a party feel to it than something highbrow. In the end, there was a sense that he had covered nearly all bases of Black popular music and this was evidenced by the last few numbers where he invited a young girl singer to bring the gig to a close. This kind of performer is becoming increasingly rare even though Peterson is in his early fifties and pretty contemporary with the musicians I have grown up listening to. It was an enjoying gig, not too serious and fun enough to make you leave the small venue with bounce in your step.
Picking up from the comment on the Blues thread that suggested social appropriation, this gig was clearly the opposite and maybe harked back to an earlier time when musicians had a broad popular appeal and could dig Anita Baker as much as they could Miles or Jimmy Smith. It is probably a bit difficult to grasp this in the UK and I think it is fair to say that Peterson has a wider reputation in France although he was getting a lot of media attention in the first half of the 1990's.
I suppose that the switch to guitar was a sign of Lucky Peterson's almost dual musical personality for he unleashed a storm of violent riffs which represented the blues at their most potent and earthy. This was music to make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Other than a solo guitar outing for the last three numbers of the first set, Peterson was sat firmly at the organ with the guitar duties picked up by Keylin Crapp. The drummer's name was also unfamiliar but Crapp's Wes-influenced guitar was a highlight. The set evolved to feature a host of familiar material including "All Blues", a number of Soul classics like "Stand by me" and material associated with Jimmy Smith. It was a shame that audience was too small for Peterson to feed off but he worked really hard at getting everyone to sing along and clap on the off-beat. Combined, the two sets went on for the best part of three hours, over-running by some 40 minutes.
I must admit that I find Peterson an engaging personality and the gig clearly had more of a party feel to it than something highbrow. In the end, there was a sense that he had covered nearly all bases of Black popular music and this was evidenced by the last few numbers where he invited a young girl singer to bring the gig to a close. This kind of performer is becoming increasingly rare even though Peterson is in his early fifties and pretty contemporary with the musicians I have grown up listening to. It was an enjoying gig, not too serious and fun enough to make you leave the small venue with bounce in your step.
Picking up from the comment on the Blues thread that suggested social appropriation, this gig was clearly the opposite and maybe harked back to an earlier time when musicians had a broad popular appeal and could dig Anita Baker as much as they could Miles or Jimmy Smith. It is probably a bit difficult to grasp this in the UK and I think it is fair to say that Peterson has a wider reputation in France although he was getting a lot of media attention in the first half of the 1990's.
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