Gig Review: Big Bad Wolf – Club 85, Hitchin, Hertfordshire – 24th June 2017
The Jazzup! series of concerts at Club 85, Hitchin, Hertfordshire continues to solidify the town’s reputation as a centre of jazz excellence with Big Bad Wolf’s recent gig at the venue. BBW are another group of young, highly accomplished, British musicians finding their collective feet in the jazz world. Well, what they play is sort of jazz but with rock, pop and even avant garde accents. Honestly, I’m pushed to describe the music but I’ll get to that in a bit. The band was conceived at The Royal Academy of Music where the members were studying and comprises Rob Luft on guitar and vocals, Owen Dawson on trombone and vocals, Jay Davis on drums and Michael de Souza on bass (or rather Fender bass VI -more caveats to follow). Their style is unique: the signature sound pivots around Dawson’s floaty electronic trombone (Owen has a pedalboard bigger than those used by many guitarists) and the interplay with Luft’s incisive guitar. These guys are virtuosos but do little or no showing off. If you want to see shredding you’ll have to look elsewhere. A fascinating component of the music is Michael de Souza’s use of the Fender VI. “Oh, the bass” you say. Well not really. The Fender is technically a baritone guitar. It has six strings tuned like a conventional guitar but just down an octave. It will play chords almost like a Strat. There is none of the (sometimes) soulless thudery of a P-bass. Jack Bruce (Cream) used one as did Jet Harris of The Shadows (yay!) Wes Montgomery and Roy Babbington (Soft Machine) to name but a few. De Souza’s riffs integrated seamlessly with Luft’s darting licks and together they produced a very complimentary and pleasing sound. The band is rounded up by the superb Jay Davis on the skins. Jay is not only a drummer but a composer of note. He has won numerous prestigious awards including the Sir Elton John Prize. In the context of BBW, he drives the band along in quietly complex but always tasteful, sensitive and joyous manner.
Overall, BBW play a unique hippie, trippy, optimistic style of music with vocal chants and lots of electronic overtones. The sound rises and falls and is sometimes reminiscent of Zappa. Or Philip Glass. Or Soft Machine. Whatever! The audience loved it and I saw some individuals visibly moved. The band played a lot of songs from their excellent upcoming album, “Pond Life” (a review of same is forthcoming shortly on these pages). When they finished the crowd demanded encores. A great gig. If you get a chance, track these guys down and check them out. I’m sure you’ll be enchanted.
John Morrow
Photos: Peter Goadby-Watt
