Black Roots ADD

Review & Photos: Black Roots in London, UK 3/29/2014

03/31/2014 by Angus Taylor

➜ VIEW THE PHOTOS HERE

Black Roots’ career was built on their formidable local reputation as a live band. It took them out on the road from Bristol and drew a following which propelled them into the national spotlight. Fittingly it was a 2011 concert at All Tomorrow’s Parties at Alexandra Palace that brought the then dormant group back into existence. And it was that sheer undiminished power that they displayed in front of a select gathering of privileged ones at the Flyover above Portobello Market on a Saturday night.

The late licence event was promoted by saxophonist Ray Carless - who supplied horns for Black Roots’ monstrous comeback album On The Ground. Therefore it made sense that the main support act be a diasporic fusion collective led by percussionist, storyteller and former Misty in Roots trumpeter Niles Asheber Hailstones, with Carless on soprano sax, Winston Saxton Rose blowing tenor and Patrick Tenyue on trumpet. Later the three hornsmen would augment their Bristol friends.
 
Black Roots (as their “on the tin” name suggests) are pretty much by the book in terms of cultural reggae. So Niles and musicians were the perfect foil playing a loose, kinetic fusion of reggae, funk, jazz, blues and antecedent West African styles. It was similar to Soothsayers - guitarist Derek Johnson is a common member - but with more consciously African lyrics, ingrained in the Griot tradition and the culture of the ancestors (who must now include the departed Bunny Rugs who was hailed via two Third World covers). Though Niles’ vibrato tapered voice is not a subtle instrument he is a mystical, commanding presence and the bond between players and audience was very strong. “We’re just blessing up the place for Black Roots” he explained - leaving a suitably limber throng behind.

By twenty past midnight Black Roots were crowding the stage: the bass bouncing off our chests, the ceilings and the floor. They stopped touring in the 90s due to overheads and it's easy to see why: they are a huge band in numbers as well as intensity. None of the four-part harmony singers are pyrotechnical showmen in the Jamaican dancehall sense. None - bar percussionist Kondwani Ngozi - are particularly tall. Yet with their bulbous, bottom heavy music behind them they have a sincerity and strength that hits like a juggernaut. They just really know how to reach you when they sing and play.
 
For 2 hours 10 minutes they thundered out 80s classics like Tribal War and Juvenile Delinquent along with re-emergent tunes Oh Mama Africa and the forbidding Pompous Way (one of the two greatest songs to feature Nick Clegg; the other being his Autotuned “Sorry”). Guitarist Jabulani hung back from the attention and quietly drew it all the while. There were a few blasts of feedback because of volume and so many people on stage. Nobody really cared. “I’m a bit deaf” joked Delroy Ogilvie “How you feeling?” “We love you and we’d love to see you again” said ever smiling Errol Brown. The sentiment was definitely travelling both ways.

It recalled a night in 2007 when Misty in Roots performed the final spot to late stragglers at a Rock Against Racism benefit at Hackney Empire. They too were on the comeback trail with a new album Roots Controller out a few years before. It may or may not have been the best set they ever played - but to the uninitiated it was extraordinary in its refusal to be denied. This night's performance by Black Roots was a similar lesson for even the most jaded and weary in attendance on what can be achieved at a single live show. It was a revitalising reminder of the power of music. And if you need further testimony that the music came first, Carless, thanking the audience at the end, pointed out that they actually did tonight's gig for free.

PHOTOS BY ROBBIE GOLEC

➜ VIEW THE PHOTOS HERE