Live Reviews

Live Review: Soil & “Pimp” Sessions at The Garage in London on 6 Apr

By Paul Vig | Published on Friday 9 April 2010

The rather hospitable Garage venue was at near bursting point as Tokyo-based jazz sextet Soil & “Pimp” Sessions took to the stage amid considerable fanfare as part of their album launch tour.

Looking rather dapper in his shades and black suit with thick white stripes, frontman Shacho took centre stage with his trademark white megaphone and kicked off the affair with the Latin-tinged ‘Pariso’ from the band’s new album. A frantic sax solo from Motoharu rang out, followed by some mad chatting in Japanese through the megaphone and into the mic.

Next up was their version of ‘Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag’, with Shacho turning his attention to an effects rack behind him and a trumpet solo from Tabu Zombie that was duly lapped up by the crowd. Josei made his mark on keyboards too, with his afro hair bobbing to the beat. With the bar raised incredibly high so early in the set, it was clear there would be no let up as they progressed through the show.

After making their way through various styles, all pulled off expertly, there was brief respite from the energetic show half way through, as the three more mobile members of the band left the stage, leaving just double bass, drums and piano, who took things downtempo with ‘Mint’. But that calm was quickly broken with some audacious piano playing towards the end of the song.

With all six musicians back on stage, they stormed through ‘Quartz And Chronometer’, my favourite track on the new album ‘6’. The brilliant ‘Fantastic Planet’ from the previous album then rang out, with hands now in the air across much of the crowd. There was a heated battle of trumpet vs sax, and Shacho invited us to sing along with him, which completely connected band and audience making for a truly great live moment.

Again some furious sax blowing from Motoharu, his skinny frame dressed up like a characture of a chav, there was a lot of dancing and prancing from the mobile performers with classic track ‘Summer Goddess’, before main set closer, ‘Satsurika New Wave’, with the band pushing themselves to what you might reasonably have thought were their limits.

An inevitable encore was due though, and after what seemed like an eternity of chanting and shouting by the crowd, Shacho returned announcing: “We are very happy” before firing headlong into ‘Suffocation’, the bowing heads of the blowers blowing in tandem, now joined by Ryan Jacob, the shirtless trumpeter from support act Deathray Trebuchay. The keys from Josei took a solo. Then there was a high octane drum solo. It was chaotic but tantalising.

Soil & “Pimp” Sessions have the kind of telekinetic connection that only truly skilled musicians who know each other’s styles inside out can truly master. And they certainly know how to put on a show, too. Clearly their energetic jazz with a twist is music to dance to, but watching them play is almost hypnotic. The gig showcased lots of great new material from the new album, which is top notch as well and out later this month. Highly highly recommended. PV

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