Jaga Jazzist - Scala, London – Wednesday 30th March 2011 (Live Review)
Monday, 04 April 2011
Written by Ben Bland
It’s hard to know how to describe a Jaga Jazzist live show. Perhaps the best place to start is with the obvious, what is up there on stage. The stage at the Scala is not small by any stretch of the imagination and yet it is full to bursting with all sorts of instruments. There’s a vibraphone at the front next to the drum kit, several banks of keyboards and synthesizers and a double bass tucked away at the back. This is not to mention the various guitars, brass and woodwind instruments that appear during the course of the show. The nine people onstage are thus restricted in terms of space in which to move but this does not stop them from putting on one of the finest shows one could possibly wish to see.
The excellence of the evening is only enhanced by support act Hidden Orchestra. Somehow finding the onstage space amongst Jaga Jazzist’s clutter to set up not one but two drum kits, the Scottish quartet impress with forty-five minutes of wonderfully executed electro-jazz.
The addition of glorious violin parts courtesy of Poppy Ackroyd help lift the band’s work to the next level whilst all the while Joe Acheson’s basslines drive the band in their constantly intriguing direction. Drummers Tim Lane and Jamie Graham steal the visual aspect of the show completely however. Both playing parts that tread the limited ground between complex and very complex, the two duel away to impressive lengths; thus catching the eye of the gathered masses that have turned up early enough. Closing with their most memorable track in 'Antiphon', Hidden Orchestra play a set that should have been pretty difficult to follow.
Opening up with two perfect examples of their unique sound, Jaga Jazzist soon show that they have no problem following up excellence with an even higher standard of performance. Both the title track and 'Toccata' from last year’s 'One-Armed Bandit' express the immense capability this group has for the seamless blending of disparate musical elements whilst remaining firmly rooted in the jazz that binds them together. Elements of electronica and prog rock enter and leave with a grace that is rare amongst acts of any description.
In a musical landscape where all too many so-called ‘experimental’ acts are touted as such merely for dropping in the occasional dubstep beat or weird synth part, Jaga Jazzist have made their experimentalism an undoubtedly pleasing but none the less intense listening experience. Indeed it is occasionally hard to keep up during this show. The band themselves present an unusual contrast in appearance throughout the course of the set, there is the seemingly constantly out-of-breath (not surprisingly either considering what he has to play) drummer Martin Horntveth and Andreas Mjøs next to him who strikes his vibraphone and guitar with the air of a man who could walk backwards through a hedge and not appear even slightly flustered.
As the set progresses the performance only becomes more powerful. The likes of 'Stardust Hotel' and 'Book of Glass' are such dense compositions that they become almost overawing to listen to. All the while the crowd stand almost completely still with the exception of some enraptured and probably unconscious head movements and foot-tapping. The Jaga Jazzist spectacle may not be something that audiences become physically involved in to any great extent but instead everyone present is entangled in the delightful webs spun by each song. At every Lars Horntveth incredible saxophone solo or impassioned trumpet blast from Mathias Eicke, it seems that everything is right with the world. After what must be approaching two hours, the band depart from the stage with around three songs worth of material still to play as the result of the usual London curfew.
Although several brains may have imploded if the band had continued for too much longer, this earlier than planned exit does not lessen the experience that London’s luckiest music lovers of the evening have witnessed. This is a truly stupendous show by a band that so richly deserves all the plaudits that they receive.
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