Every previous “jazz revival” of the last few decades – jazz funk, acid jazz, jazz-rap, nu jazz and so on – was aimed squarely at the dancefloor, so it seems odd that a lot of the current jazz resurgence is so hard to move to.
London tenorist Nubya Garcia is a fine player blessed with an engaging, breathy tone and specialising in carefully detonated explosive freakouts. But her set tonight – a series of dense, viscous grooves in which drummer Benjamin Appiah thunders between Afrobeat, dubstep and dancehall and pianist Charlie Stacey puts his keyboards through the dub chamber – is impossible to even nod along to, let alone dance to. This wouldn’t be a problem in most jazz clubs, but it makes it difficult for the packed crowd at this new, clubby, 750-capacity stand-up venue in Dalston, east London, to fully engage with the set.
Someone who understands the dynamics of a stand-up venue is Chicago drummer Makaya McCraven. His recent album Universal Beings documented jam sessions with four different lineups in four cities (LA, Chicago, New York and London), all of which were then chopped, looped and spliced into a series of loose grooves. It will probably be seen, in years to come, as a pivotal document of the ongoing relationship between jazz and hip-hop, and tonight’s show gave some insight into his methodology. Matt Gold’s atmospheric guitar soundscapes mesh with some terse improvisations, powered by McCraven’s dancefloor-friendly beats.
Garcia is one of the stars of Universal Beings, and the two bands collaborated in various configurations for the final set, well past midnight. Alongside other top London players including the guitarist Shirley Tetteh, Garcia sounded magnificent – the highlight of a mixed evening.
• The EFG London jazz festival ends on 25 November.
