Edinburgh Jazz Festival review: Soweto Kinch Quartet, George Square Spiegeltent, Edinburgh

SAXOPHONIST Soweto Kinch was a popular choice with which to round off this year’s Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, thanks to his winning combination of virtuosity, inventiveness, amiability – and, on this latest visit to the Festival, an international band of fellow travellers, comprising American pianist Eric Lewis aka ELEW (quite the extrovert showman next to Kinch’s easygoing presence), plus Brummie bassist Nick Jurd and Slovakian drummer David Hodek.
Kinch and his band had the crowd  participating  happily. Picture: AJ Blair PhotographyKinch and his band had the crowd  participating  happily. Picture: AJ Blair Photography
Kinch and his band had the crowd participating happily. Picture: AJ Blair Photography

Soweto Kinch Quartet, George Square Spiegeltent, Edinburgh ****

Together, they promised “sweat and gutbucket jazz music,” although the first sound from the stage was the retro-futuristic pulse of electronic loops, before this impish muzak melted away to be replaced by Lewis’s dexterous decoration, Kinch’s mellow tones and Jurd’s assured and steady solo.

Hide Ad

There was hip supper club warmth to the likes of Something Felt. Not for the last time Kinch deferred to his bandmates before returning to the spotlight with a solo looped back on itself with added juddering distortion. As the wind buffeted the tent, his sax became ever stormier and Lewis responded with some tempestuous runs.

The second half opened with Kinch and Lewis at their most lithe and liberated as they tag-teamed with relish on a rendition of John Coltrane’s Mr Day.

It was harder to engage with the fidgety free association which followed but there was wholehearted audience participation in one of Kinch’s trademark freestyle raps, brought to you by the letters in EJazz – the words “energy”, “joy” and “abstract” were all suggested by the crowd and duly woven into his verse like an instant critique of Kinch’s musical qualities.

FIONA SHEPHERD