This is one of the easiest – and hardest – reviews I have ever written. It is easy because the concert was great so no real gripes, but hard as I have been trawling the internet for information about the two bands involved without coming up with much at all.

Firstly, the support act, Kontiki, are a set of musicians from the Leeds/Bradford area who play amazing Afrobeat, which got the whole place rocking. I have accessed their Facebook page but there are no entries for almost a year and no details of the band members. Fortunately, I did manage to find a couple of video clips of them recording tracks three years ago. Instagram is not much help either, so, these artists who did such a great support job, must remain anonymous.

I am going to make a couple of constructive criticisms in this article, the first being that the musical skills of Kontiki are excellent, however, their stagecraft could do with a bit of work. Not only did the leader not introduce either himself, or the other band members, during the performance, but the pieces of music were similarly overlooked. After the second tune, which followed on seamlessly from the first, we were told that they were from the band’s album, neither the name of the album nor the titles were divulged. I held out some hope when the third work was introduced but this was a new piece which had not yet been given a name! The words of the leader were also obscured by a duelling banjos kind of incident between the bass player and guitarist. I suppose it was a neat sales ploy for knocking out the merch at the interval.

Left to right: Don’t Know, Beats Me, No Idea, Your Guess Is As Good As Mine and, on sax, Not A Scooby. 😉

I would have loved to have been able to find a list of imminent gigs to let you know about, but I lost the will to live after a longish session of googling, as there seem to be several bands with the same name, as well as Kontiki being the title of one of the Shadows’ biggest hits in the Sixties, videos of which monopolised the search results. You will just have to keep your eyes peeled at your favourite venue, and you really should. Anyway, here is a link to one of the recordings I mentioned. https://www.facebook.com/musicofkontiki/videos/646457549771827

After the break, we were treated to more of the same, this time by Jembaa Groove. I did glean a bit more information, beginning with the blurb on Howard Assembly Room’s site trailing the gig. The band comprises Ghanaian singer and percussionist, Eric Owusu, who, along with German bass player and producer, Yannick Nolting, co-leads the ensemble. They are based in Berlin and, as you will notice from the difference between the feature image and my photograph, have changed line-up lately.

Yannick Nolting, bass with Eric Owusu on percussion. The drummer, keyboard player and trumpeter are all namesakes of the members of Kontiki.

Eric Owusu did introduce some of the songs as well as the musicians, but there seemed to be a bit of a tuning issue for bass player Yannick Nolting going on so it wasn’t possible to discern the information. By this time, however, the gig had turned from a sit and listen affair into a party, with a lot of audience members taking to the sides of the auditorium for a boogie. As you know, I am always first up and last down but the space was so cramped that I didn’t think I would be able to express myself properly, so remained in my seat.

What I did manage to hear from the thoughts of Eric Owusu, was how much they loved playing at this superb venue, where, not only is the architecture superb, but also the acoustics spot-on. The guys and women on the mixing desk always do a great job, as do those on the lighting, although most of their effects make taking photographs a nightmare – still they are there to add atmosphere to the performances, which they certainly do, rather than cater to my artistic needs.

If you watch this video clip of a gig at the Jazz Café in London, there is a lot of arm movement involved, which is OK if you are dancing, but those of us still seated looked like we were in one of those exercise classes in geriatric homes which you ofter see on news reports covering their closure or lack of funds. I suppose that in my case it is not too far off the mark. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkmB6f29sLVWIe3mSSaZ0vw

For more details about Jembaa Groove please go to their website https://www.jembaamusic.com where, by using the menu you can get details of their records and tour dates. Sadly, for us in the UK, they have moved on in their African/European tour, but, as I seem to attract readers from all over the world, have a check to see if they are coming to a place near you. They are well worth a look.

My other piece of constructive criticism concerns Howard Assembly Room, a place I have come to know and love, in that I believe the format for bands such as this one, whose music is made for dancing, should be standing, rather than seated. I am sure that there are good reasons why sometimes this might not be practical, or even possible, but it would have given everyone the opportunity to strut their funky stuff, or sit in the balcony or on the benches around the hall. Having said that, it is quite possible the people who decide these things will have known that I was going, so it could have ben a ploy to stop me showing up the younger element by displaying my prowess on the dance floor, or, more likely, showing myself up.

To see what is coming to Howard Assembly Room, please see https://www.operanorth.co.uk/event-tag/har/ It is worth going, just to experience the wonderful hall.

Feature image from Opera North. Photographs by Stan Graham.

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