14/01/08
Rock and Jazz cats -
Categories: This week has been my birthday week. You may possibly argue how it might be a whole birthday week when most people only have birthdays for one day? Well my answer to you would be because I am a self indulgent individual who very much enjoys the excuse to have fun all week and not really be productive in any way. Also when you have a normal job it may seem fun and perhaps cheeky to have a day off for your special day, but when you are a self employed comedian it merely becomes a clever disguise for the fact that I have no bookings until the end of January.
I'm not saddened by this though. Well I am a bit, and my bank is especially, but on the plus side I have been keeping myself busy with birthday fun. Whilst 27 may not be old to many people, I feel in particular that it is. In the entertainment world, 27 is ancient. Most famous people make it when they are merely 20 and so by being 27 and still not getting anywhere in particular I feel time is quickly running out which is odd as running is the last thing I feel capable of doing in my old old age. So to make me feel younger my girlfriend bought me a Nintendo Wii for my birthday which made me very quickly get as excited as a 7 year old, and as unproductive as someone who is addicted to playing the Nintendo Wii. Today I am restraining myself in order to get some writing done, and hence the first blog in over a week and a bit.
In between boxing virtual opponents and helping Italian plumbers jump down pipes I have also been out and about. On Friday I went to see comedy legend Chris Rock at the Apollo. Its rare for me to pay to see a stand-up as usually I get my fair share in the week of gigs, and go home not wanting to hear anything remotely funny for a while, but I had been looking forward to seeing Chris Rock live ever since I first heard 'Roll With The New' in 1997. What he did on that show was ground breaking, controversial and full of energy, and I thought it was one of the best shows I had ever heard. I've since watched his shows after that and while I loved 'Bigger and Blacker', I wasn't too fond of his last and more generic show 'Never Scared'. Nevertheless, he had never played in the UK before and has now sold out all 11 dates, so I was hoping it'd be something special. There have been enough great reviews of this show but in my opinion it was and it wasn't. When he first walked on the stage the energy had the hairs on the back of my neck on end. 3000 people applauding a man for merely entering and grabbing the mic was amazing and he immediately treated us with some great banter about being in London and the US Elections. The first hour was excellent with some brilliant material on race issues and a few lines that made me laugh so hard I snorted. Then all of a sudden, everything took a dip, and the last 45 minutes was not too good. The material suddenly went from sharp to bland 'why men and women are different' gags that he has been doing for years. That's not to say he didn't perform it well, but it still felt flat and not the Chris Rock we had paid to see. The whole gig also felt a tad impersonal. In a venue of 3000 plus I didn't expect him to banter with everyone but he literally ignored all shout outs, did a very brief bit at the beginning about London but then filled the rest of the show with US references not everyone knew (how many people here know about Barry Bonds?) and then left with a very abrupt 'I'm gone, thanks'. That finale left everyone feeling a little cold. All it would have taken was a few more acknowledgements of the audience and a 'thanks you were a great crowd' or something to help us differentiate the gig from watching a DVD. Despite this though, I'm very glad I went and the good lines made it more than worth it.
As a follow up to this, on Saturday I ventured with a few close friends to Ronnie Scott's, the famous London Jazz Club. Once in there a friend on mine remarked that she had recently been to several live jazz gigs which 'must mean I'm getting old'. Bizarrely I seem to agree with her. A few years ago I would never have spent a Saturday night revelling in the softly sung tones of a female jazz vocalist and some amazing trumpet playing, opting more for drum n bass at Fabric or something more club-like. Is this a sign of mellowing out as a person? My music collection has suddenly started including Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Bird and lots of Nina Simone to name a few, while as I type this I am thoroughly enjoying the horn playing of 4-piece band Portico Quartet.
My music taste has always been, for want of a better term, eclectic. I do hate stating that, as often when people say their music taste is eclectic I find they like to listen to truly sh*t things such as Algerian monks wailing from horseback or Hungarian techno-folk rock. The latter actually exists and it is truly aurally abhorrent. I've never enjoyed that sort of stuff but what I like really does range from funk to rock to hip-hop to classical to blues. Lately however there has suddenly been a lure for jazz, (bar that complete moron Jamie Cullem and his rodent faced ways) and I can only put that down to maybe being old enough to appreciate it. Either that or snobby enough to think I'm old enough to appreciate.
And when you go to Ronnie Scott's you realise the pay-off of liking such a type of music, as its the sort of venue that reeks cool from every corner. It was the sort of venue that it felt prestigious to be in, and when the main band played it was almost like we were trapped in a 30's speak easy. Only there was the absence of smoke. Or gangsters. And it wasn't illegal. And it wasn't the 30's.
So to play along with our surroundings, our table got drunk on cocktails, talked all the way through the final act before proceeding to leave and scoff our faces while food fighting at a cheapo place in China Town, then returning to mine to drink more and play Lego Star Wars on the Nintendo Wii. Maybe I haven't got too old just yet.
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