Space Is The Place - Jerry Dammers Spatial AKA Orchestra
It's not every day that you have your mind expanded at work.
Last week I was lucky enough to witness the only Scottish appearance of the latest project from Mr (yes, he of The Specials and 2-Tone fame).
The was the fittingly ostentatious location for a huge performance last Wednesday night from the Spatial AKA Orchestra, his 18-piece space-jazz happening. Radio producer Sushil Dade and his team of engineers were recording the gig for Radio Scotland's Jazz House programme.
With a small spaceship looming over a stage full of Egyptian statues and tribal masks, and a sound inspired in equal parts by Sun Ra's Arkestra, , 1960s reggae, and sci-fi B-movies, the band features some of the UK's best jazz musicians, decked out in a mad assortment of ancient Egyptian robes and head-dresses. It's fair to say they totally won over the crowd - not a simple task when much of the music is really quite out there.
I took some photos of the gig.
Dammers himself in the role of arranger and band leader stood behind a Tardis control panel of vintage synths, emitting sci-fi zaps and bass squiggles between announcing the songs in his laconic style.
The musical repertoire was super-eclectic, spanning Erik Satie, Sun Ra (of course), Alice Coltrane, Martin Denny, a couple of Specials numbers (a slow spooky rendition of Ghost Town stood out), some old ska tunes...Plenty of free jazz moments allowed the many stellar soloists to take the spotlight, but it was all made nicely chunky-sounding and accessible to a less than hardcore jazz audience thanks to the arrangements and the huge rhythm section and rock-y drumming.
It's great to see a band making so much effort to put on a spectacle, and obviously having so much fun - everyone loves a bit of fancy dress. There were many moments of insanity, but the standout for me was to be the encore. As Dammers' closing synth wigout wibbled away the band trooped out into the street in full costume singing the mantra-like chant of the final number - Sun Ra's 'Space Is The Place'. A small crowd formed a circle round the band clapping and chanting as horns tootled away. Dammers appeared playing a couple of bells and grinning from ear to ear, bringing a little bit of space to a cold March night on Lothian Road of all places.
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