The first thing that was immediately evident was that Bonobo’s live show now consists of an entire band, all of whom appear to be extraordinary musicians in their own right. All of the songs were renditions of Green’s recorded tracks, faithfully rendered, but with a fuller live feel. While the dedicated drummer, guitarist, and keyboardist were all completely in tune with each other, the real surprise for me was the strength of their wind instrumentalist, who demonstrated a complete mastery of the flute, clarinet, and saxophone over the course of the evening. Mr. Bonobo himself started out the evening manning the electronics, but ended up donning a bass guitar about a song or two in. He then spent the majority of the concert transitioning between keys and bass, which makes a lot of sense to me, given the strength of these elements in his music. The final piece in the puzzle was singer Andreya Triana, who is featured heavily on the new album, Black Sands. Looking every bit the soul chanteuse, Triana accompanied all of the album tracks she sang on, surging with emotion under the cooled stage lights. She also covered a number of songs that had been sung by Bajka on Bonobo’s third album, Days to Come, delivering powerful interpolations while channeling that same sultry, evocative vocal style.
All-in-all, the performance was very intricate and tightly honed, even while allowing plenty of room for multiple solos and jazz-flourishes. The crowd was entirely enthusiastic throughout, and the whole band seemed very gracious and humbled by the outpouring of support, even offering an extended encore for the eager fans. For me, the show was as good as I could have imagined, and stood as a testament to a number of things. First, to the idea of consummate musicianship: that Simon Green has pushed himself beyond being just a producer and DJ, and has evolved into accomplished multi-instrumentalist who has refined his stage show to its logical end point. And secondly, to power of quality and commitment: it’s been years since downtempo or chill has been a buzz-word, and while the work of so many beatmakers of that era remain frozen in rows of shelved coffee shop compilations, Bonobo’s continued relevance suggests an even greater concept – that great music never stops being cool.
The first thing that was immediately evident it was that Bonobo’s live show now consists of an entire band, all of whom appear to be extraordinary musicians in their own right. All of the songs were renditions of Green’s recorded tracks, faithfully rendered, but with a fuller live feel. While the dedicated drummer, guitarist, and keyboardist were all completely in tune with each other and impressive musicians, the real surprise for me was the strength of their wind instrumentalist, who demonstrated a complete mastery of the flute, clarinet, and saxophone over the course of the evening. Mr. Bonobo himself started out the evening manning the electronics, but ended up donning a bass guitar about a song or two in. He then spent the majority of the concert transitioning between keys and bass (which makes a lot of sense to me, given the strength of these elements in his music). The final piece in the puzzle was singer Andreya Triana, who is featured heavily on the new album, Black Sands. Looking every bit the soul chanteuse, Triana accompanied all of the album tracks she sang on, surging with emotion under the cooled stage lights. She also covered a number of songs that had been sung by Bajka on Bonobo’s third album, Days to Come, delivering powerful interpolations while channeling that same sultry, evocative vocal style.
All-in-all, the performance was very intricate and tightly honed, even while allowing plenty of room for multiple solos and jazz-flourishes. The crowd was entirely enthusiastic throughout, and the whole band seemed very gracious and humbled by the outpouring of support, even offering an extended encore for the eager fans. For me, the show was as good as I could have imagined, and stood as a testament to a number of things. First, to the idea of consummate musicianship: that Simon Green has pushed himself beyond being just a producer and dj, and has evolved into accomplished multi-instrumentalist who has refined his stage show to its logical end point. And secondly, to power of quality and commitment: it’s been years since downtempo or chill has been a buzz-word, and while the work of so many beatmakers of that era remain frozen in rows of shelved coffee shop compilations, Bonobo’s continued relevance suggests an even greater concept – that great music never stops being cool.
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