Medstead Village Hall hosted the latest Hog the Limelight production on 10th October. It was a dramatic musical performance, wonderful singing by Helen MacDonald and fabulous music by the Macusi players, a five piece band of infinite musical ability and enhanced by various unusual instruments, specially in the percussion area, e.g. Ghanaian Cora and Caribbean Drums. The players, all extremely talented, were: flute, played like I’ve never heard before by Keith Waithe, scintillating pianist Vladimir Miller, bass guitarist Eustace Williams with his tuneful and skilful playing, and fantastic backing and solo expertise by Jojo Yates and Darryl Lee Que on percussion.

The theme was the ‘life and times of Billie Holiday, brought to life through music, words and cutting edge technology’. Helen MacDonald, a very innovative actress and singer, enthralled us all with songs which we have heard sung in the past, by various singers in addition to Billie, like Strange Fruit, God Bless the Child, Don’t Explain, Lover Man, Stormy Weather, Summertime and Good Morning Heartache. The second part was enlivened by songs in a lighter vein, like Love me or Leave Me, All of Me, Them Their Eyes, and Summertime.

I didn’t feel that the ‘life and times’ was emphasised enough, in other words we were only told, I think twice, the meaning of the songs and why they had been written, usually by Billie herself, who tried to tell the world about all the terrible treatment that black people were suffering. The title ‘Strange Fruit’ was horrific, the fruit being dead black bodies hanging from the trees, ugh!  Then the fact that ‘Don’t Explain’ was written by Billie after she had been let down by a lover. There was very little about the background of Billie Holiday’s life and career, and the fact that she went from poverty to stardom, becoming the great star she is today.

However, and this is a true compliment, this did not detract at all from the truly magical singing and playing. The audience really did ‘hang on her every word’, as Helen produced the songs in hers (and Billie’s) own special way, and the band was phenomenal. We went home ‘on a high’ after a memorable performance by Hog the Limelight.

The next Hog the Limelight show in Medstead will be the comic singing trio  'The Singing Sous Chefs' on January 23rd. For details of all the Hog the Limelight events, see: www.medstead.org/hogthelimelight.

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Diverse Canopy

Secondly, he hasn’t been championed by an A&R/promoter that realises the aforementioned scenario is actually a great artistic strength. Thirdly, he hasn’t been properly recorded. None of the releases to date on Waithe’s own Esquibo label have accurately represented his wealth of talent, mostly because the audio quality and engineering doesn’t do justice to the subtleties of the leader and the skill of his band. It’s the same story with Diverse Canopy. Waithe’s impressive, cohesive ensemble, the Macusi Players (Kofi Adu on drums, Eustace Williams on bass, Chris Jerome on piano and Mo Nasan on guitar among others) sound decidedly thin on occasions and that’s simply because they haven’t been well treated in post-production. Jerome’s piano and Nasan’s guitar in particular suffer in the mix.

And yet there is still much to be enjoyed here. Renditions of Latin jazz classics such as Afro-Blue, rock anthems like The Wind That Cries Mary and Indo-Carib-Celtic originals like Truly Diverse all highlight the leader’s brilliant, aerial attack and textural finesse. If that talent could be properly harnessed in the studio then the results would be astounding.

As I’m sure the likes of his past collaborators such as Nitin Sawhney and Courtney Pine would agree, Keith Waithe is one of the most gifted, underrated musicians in the UK today.

Mellifluous - Blossoming into Truth

Waithe cuts effortlessly across jazz and World categories, centring most of his music on African, Caribbean, Asian and Latin rhythms all the while weaving in subtle classical influences. His writing always has a tremendous amount of colour. Despite the strong themes that make up this live recording it is the depth and diversity of Waithe’s playing that really stands out here.

On the one hand he is impassioned and quasi-riotous, pumping out aggressive, thrusting phases that often topple into Sahib Shihab style vocalese. On the other hand he is languorous and reflective, adopting the poise of a bansuri player on a piece such as the bewitching Orishti Theme, possible the album’s highlight. The net result is music of a picaresque, poetic power that is surely deserving of a bigger stage.