Gig review/ NCPA Soulful Blues festival

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BY NARENDRA KUSNUR 

Shakura S'Aida and Sugaray Rayford/ NCPA Soulful Blues festival 

Genre: Blues, soul, rhythm n' blues

Presented by: National Centre for the Performing Arts 

Details; Tata Theatre, March 29 and 30

Rating; **** 1/2

One was yet to recover from the March 27 Def Leppard concert at the Jio World Garden, when one experienced two nights of incredible magic at the Tata Theatre. The NCPA Soulful Blues festival may have had far fewer attendees, but what a weekend it was.

Both artistes - Canadian singer Shakura S'Aida on the opening night and American artiste Sugaray Rayford on Sunday - displayed loads of energy and plenty of interaction with the audience. Shakura's performance boasted of some unbelievable vocals, with 'Modern Love' containing the kind of phrasing and control one hasn't too often. Sugaray's performance was dominated by originals, but his band suddenly surprised everyone with a stupendous version of Pink Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb'.

Though the festival, compered by Brian Tellis, is themed 'Soulful Blues', the music here is vastly different from the Mahindra Blues Festival held at Mehboob Studio. The songs are often eclectic, blending blues with soul, rhythm n' blues and hints of jazz, funk and reggae. The line-up includes some interesting instruments. Shakura's show had lap steel, by the exuberant Nikki D, besides an extra percussion hand by Ajibola. Sugaray was accompanied by Drake Shining's Hammond organ, Derick DJ Martin' saxophone and Julian Davis's trumpet. Both line-ups had phenomenal guitarists - Kunle on Day 1 and Anthony Cullins the following evening. Bassists Roger Williams and Allen Markel, and drummers Worrell MacFarlane and Sky García maintained a tight rhythm on the respective days.

Besides the singing, it was the individual approach that made a difference. Shakura told stories between songs, about her daughter or her interaction with blues musician Keb Mo. She did a wonderful cover of Big Maybelle's 'Getting Along Alright', popularised by Koko Taylor, besides her own songs 'Glad for Today', 'Doodan' and her latest single 'Keep It Moving', describing her life philosophy.

Sugaray had the crowd in splits with his humour. "We're gonna play some country music," he quipped. Later, after someone screamed wow when he said his song 'Gonna Lift You Up' had 1.5 million streams on Spotify, he said, "Wow indeed. I got a cheque of three dollars."

Besides 'Comfortably Numb', featuring Drake on vocals and Anthony on that stunning guitar coda, Sugaray's set included 'Blind Alley', 'Is.It Just Me' and 'Aha', written for his grandmother. Drenched in sweat, the 56-year-old danced with the energy of a 25-ager. After the band members left post-encore, he did a solo a capella version of Louis Armstrong's 'Wonderful World'. What a performance, ending two days of sheer magnificence. Soulful Blues or bluesy soul, it worked and how.





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