BIG CHIEF ON BROADWAY- Live at the Ealing Jazz Blues & Roots Festival 2010 Big Chief

This is a really special album and contains, to this writer's mind, one of the very best Blues tracks of the year 'Drowning on Dry Land'. Big Chief is a North London Band an institution that has run for over 30 years, led by Saxophonist John Fry and featuring Tony Reeves on bass the eight piece unit has had some of the major names in British R&B and Jazz through its ranks including Dick Heckstall-Smith no less- its all part of a CV that takes ones breath away. Thirty odd years and a few decent albums- but this is the best - it crackles with life as the band plays a storming set - the music is a mixture of R&B with brass, Township / Afro, Ska and some funky jazz edged tunes, some blues tinged classics by such as Eugene McDaniels, Tom Waites and Randy Newman - it moves, it swings, it excites, it grooves and it lifts the spirits as you will hear it raised the spirits of the audience on that night. The band is introduced by Tim Aves who also leads the demands for an encore - every track is good but for Blues fans 'YOU GOTTA MOVE' by Fred McDowell is really good and 'DROWNING ON DRY LAND' is outstanding; a real corker of a slow blues - with superb solos on Trumpet, both saxes and guitar -great dynamics and a soul filled vocal by John Fry that rings every ounce of desperation and regret from the lyric. Yet the best track of all follows - 'AFRICA RAG' written by John Fry and guitarist Barry Langton it's an Afro groove and the percussion section is let loose to dazzling effect - it closes with everyone in the band and many in the audience playing something and builds to a climax that close with the audience roaring for more. I recommend this very highly indeed - it's Big Chief at the very top of their game - its an hour plus of really good music. www.bigchief.org.uk Vicky Martin