REVIEW: Omar + QCBA

“All lovers of black music history lift every voice and sing.”

Photographer: Monika S Jakubowska

Omar + QCBA Live Review

Jazz Café, London [Mar 31, 2022]

The launch of an album that was recorded right here last year. In short, the live of the live, which we might market as surreal soul, a thing that would suit the likes of Omar + QCBA very well. After all, the former, known only too well to Echoes readers, has always undertaken flights of fancy in his 30-year career, such as that mesmerizing solo body slap rhythm-a-ning that was also done at this very venue when he was a yoot, not to mention his unique way of synthesizing dub, Afro-Latin, electronica and rhythm & blues in the mould of Stevie, Donny et al. Trumpeter Quentin Collins and tenor saxophonist-flautist Brandon Allen are the high grade jazz quartet who collaborate with him on Live At Last [riff on the title at your pleasure] and they are everything he could have hoped for to give his repertoire the richness associated with his aforementioned sources of inspiration. The horns reign supreme on classics such as ‘The Man’, ‘Stop War, Make Love’ and ‘Syleste’, providing shifting colours and textures that enhance a tone as distinctive as Omar’s. Then again, drummer Ian Thomas, depping for James Maddren, is funkily on point and organist Ross Stanley holds down the bass and treble quite magnificently - and also excels with Omar on a heavenly duet of ‘Nature Boy’, which ends with the gothic-horror-jump-scare of Bach’s ‘Toccata And Fugue In D Minor.’ Which is not quite what Nat ‘King’ Cole did back in the day. In any case, all lovers of black music history lift every voice and sing to the finale of ‘Be Thankful For What You’ve Got’, where the band was also joined by the hugely impressive young singer Cherise [who is more than likely to move from support act to headliner in the fullness of time].

Kevin Le Gendre

LIVE REVIEW: CAMILLA GEORGE

Camilla’s Jazz Café show was a real success, as reviewed by Marlbank’s Stephen Graham.

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Winston Clifford was on stage the most senior player of all and gave a certain gravitas to the groove. Clifford you'll know from his work with Orphy Robinson on the vibes great's Blue Note 1990s album The Vibes Described for instance and on the Birmingham jazz icon saxist Andy Hamilton's Jamaica By Night to name but a few.

Ibio-Ibio is about Camilla's tribe from south-eastern coastal Nigeria, a certain walking with the spirits, with one piece themed around a shrine and musically steering a path that cut interestingly across bebop, sheer groove and Afrobeat stylings. On bass guitar Daniel Casimir was one of the stand-out players, even Bernard Edwards-like in one passage (no mean feat). George's band featured a guest kora player Kadialy Kouyate who came on with the horn players trombonist Nathaniel Cross and Sheila Maurice-Grey on trumpet from Kokoroko who was superb breaking free. Bookended with 'Intro' and 'Outro' the band sound was flavoured by the Grant Green-influenced nattily behatted Artie Zaitz known for his work with Moses Boyd's band Exodus. As usual he was a sizzling presence in the rhythm section.

Camilla mentioned in a brief chat to marlbank before the gig that Jazz Jamaica will be back on the road in July with dates doing Trojan material including at the Royal Festival Hall. So put 18 July in your diary for now. Watch out too for the build-up when it begins in due course to Ibio Ibio because the scintillating sounds heard here (especially the 'God of Heaven' and 'God of Earth' pieces) augur well. SG

Winston Clifford was on stage the most senior player of all and gave a certain gravitas to the groove. Clifford you'll know from his work with Orphy Robinson on the vibes great's Blue Note 1990s album The Vibes Described for instance and on the Birmingham jazz icon saxist Andy Hamilton's Jamaica By Night to name but a few.

Ibio-Ibio is about Camilla's tribe from south-eastern coastal Nigeria, a certain walking with the spirits, with one piece themed around a shrine and musically steering a path that cut interestingly across bebop, sheer groove and Afrobeat stylings. On bass guitar Daniel Casimir was one of the stand-out players, even Bernard Edwards-like in one passage (no mean feat). George's band featured a guest kora player Kadialy Kouyate who came on with the horn players trombonist Nathaniel Cross and Sheila Maurice-Grey on trumpet from Kokoroko who was superb breaking free. Bookended with 'Intro' and 'Outro' the band sound was flavoured by the Grant Green-influenced nattily behatted Artie Zaitz known for his work with Moses Boyd's band Exodus. As usual he was a sizzling presence in the rhythm section.

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Camilla mentioned in a brief chat to marlbank before the gig that Jazz Jamaica will be back on the road in July with dates doing Trojan material including at the Royal Festival Hall. So put 18 July in your diary for now. Watch out too for the build-up when it begins in due course to Ibio Ibio because the scintillating sounds heard here (especially the 'God of Heaven' and 'God of Earth' pieces) augur well. SG

LIVE REVIEW: OMAR AND QCBA BOOGIE BACK TO CAMDEN’S REOPENED JAZZ CAFÉ

Jazzwise’s Kevin Le Gendre writes, “The south London jazz vocal don hits home with some uplifting spiritual soul-food.”

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Omar at Jazz Cafe – Photo by Monika S Jakubowska

Omar at Jazz Cafe – Photo by Monika S Jakubowska

Reopened but with the novelty of distanced tables in its large standing space, one of London’s premier venues takes baby steps towards a post-covid world. This is precisely the kind of gig that is medicinal in every sense of the term. British soul legend Omar has long made music that can lift the spirits as well as impress with its ingenuity, and his meeting with a grade-A jazz quartet co-led by trumpeter Quentin Collins and saxophonist Brandon Allen provides a welcome opportunity to appreciate that. The fact that the set exclusively comprises Omar material written over a thirty-year period makes a strong case for him as a notable original composer as well as a man with a stellar voice. Casting his melodies against a largely acoustic backdrop actually highlights the richness of Omar’s phrasing, with Allen’s rapier flute doubling the second half of couplets and Collins’s lyrical brass floating in tight counterpoint.

Favourites such as ‘The Man’ have a notably lithe swing and a gospel holler thanks to the simmering chords of Ross Stanley’s Hammond organ, though ‘Essensual’ reminds us that Afro-Latin rhythms are a major component of Omar’s music, as befits his longstanding affinity to legends Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway. Yet there is a substantial amount of space afforded the band, culminating in an explosive interlude in which drummer James Maddren inventively breaks up a hitherto steady beat and Allen and Collins launch into raucous solos that raise the temperature in the room before everybody settles back down and Omar returns to the familiar ground of pieces such as ‘Syleste’. This deliciously lithe bossa nova is a highlight of his repertoire, and in tonight’s guise the original bass clarinet riff is covered by Allen pushing his low notes to the burr of a baritone.

Omar brings customary light and shade to the table, with that all-important falsetto as silken as it ever has been, but he also feeds off the energy of the soloists. On the coda of this and other songs he launches into lengthy scat solos that underline the entwinement of jazz and soul that places the likes of John Hendricks, Marvin Gaye and George Benson in one lineage. Omar has his own place in that, above all because the texture of his voice lies in a thought-provoking space between Black Britain, the Caribbean and Black America. He breaks boundaries.  

Omar’s stream of wordless sounds, some throaty and rugged, some airy and refined, brings to mind the singer in his youth, playing a ‘body rhythm’ in which tightly co-ordinated vocal riffs and chest slaps call forth the spirit of a one man barbershop band. As a multi-instrumentalist who has always had an ear for timbres off the beaten track Omar was most probably intrigued by the sight of Alina Bzhezhinska combining solo harp and laptop beats in the first half of the evening, and he also regularly plays synthesizer to produce an additional overlay of rakish funk that gels with the horns. 

Anyway, when things slow right down for the mandatory take on his signature tune, ‘There’s Nothing Like This’ Omar is also astute enough to rein in and let the beauty of the theme speak for itself. Everybody singing along knows this all too well, a wave of nostalgia washing away the misery of a pandemic that has not quite left the scene.

Omar + QCBA – Live at the Jazz Café

LondonJazz News’ Lavender Sutton writes, “"The audience would agree that there’s ‘nothing like this’ – but in case you missed it, watch out for the album release on Ubuntu Music."

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Omar + QCBA
(Live at The Jazz Café. Also recorded for future release as a live album. 29 May 2021. Review by Lavender Sutton)

Omar Lye-Fook (Monika S Jakubowska photographer)

Omar Lye-Fook (Monika S Jakubowska photographer)

Quentin Collins and Brandon Allen (Monika S Jakubowska photographer)FOR THE FULL REVIEW, PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE, ABOVE.

Quentin Collins and Brandon Allen (Monika S Jakubowska photographer)

FOR THE FULL REVIEW, PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE, ABOVE.

JOE DOWNARD AND JAMES COPUS – THE DYNAMIC DUO REBOOT JAZZ CAFE LIVE PERFORMANCES

Jazzwise’s James Rybacki writes, “All in all, it’s both a triumphant return to live music and a chance for Ubuntu Music to show off some of the exquisite talent they’ve got on the roster.”

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The Joe Downard Sextet. Photo by Monika S Jakubowska.

The Joe Downard Sextet. Photo by Monika S Jakubowska.

A return, at last, to live jazz and all that comes with it. The frenetic improvisation of top-drawer players spurred on by an enraptured crowd, the electric charge that ripples around the room as a wicked chord change throws you, a blue note cuts through, and the band brings it all together to rise to a crescendo.

Onstage in Camden Town’s newly socially distanced Jazz Cafe, the relief from the artists is almost palpable. They’re back to doing what they love, and playing with a renewed passion and zest - you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

Launching his album Seven Japanese Tales after what must have been an agonising and uncertain wait, Joe Downard wields his upright bass with downright intensity, steering his band adroitly through seven lush and long pieces. Leading the attack, Alex Hitchcock and James Copus’s respective saxophone and trumpet play off each other magnificently, intertwining with invention and restlessly sparring.

The rhythm players come into their own on songs like ‘Terror’, where a driving and busy opening gives way to a more pensive and meandering middle section. Later in the set, the tense chords at the start of ‘The Thief’ are even more awesomely jarring in person than they are on the record. There, they are exquisitely dissonant. Here, they almost strike fear in the best way possible.

James Copus starts his set with new material, a languid groove that lays the foundation for the set and showcases the trumpeter’s evident chops. Copus’s material from his album ‘Dusk’ has a more electronic feel for the live set, with an electric bass and Fender Rhodes sound changing up the musical soundscape. The keys playing enters more synthy territory at times, getting very glitchy and outside, spiraling chaotically before coming back in line. All in all, it’s both a triumphant return to live music and a chance for Ubuntu Music to show off some of the exquisite talent they’ve got on the roster. “We’re taking over London,” co-founder Martin Hummel tells me between sets, “come with us!” Gladly.