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Independent, The (London), May 13, 2008 by NICK HASTED
STILL BLACK STILL PROUD Dome BRIGHTON ***
The impact of James Brown's visit to Zaire ahead of the 1974 Ali- Foreman fight is downplayed by African musicians these days. But the triangle formed by Africa's indirect influence on Brown, and in turn his effect on Seventies Afro-funk, is profound. This Brighton Festival gig brings together two of Brown's bandleaders, Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley, with Afro-funk instigator Tony Allen and other US musicians, so these two traditions may strike direct sparks at last.
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Saxophonist Ellis, musical director of Brown's Famous Flames, is bandleader tonight. You can clearly hear his and trombonist Wesley's jazz roots in the Harlem brass serenades of "Soul Pride". "Say It Loud (I'm Black And I'm Proud)" gets a mumbled response from old soul's modern white demographic. But when Allen slips behind the drums for "No Discrimination", a muggier, sultry percussion driven by Vicky Edimo's bass brings Africa to the stage. Watching Allen's arms and wrists at work on crisp, supple, cymbal-heavy rhythms is wonderful. Ellis and Wesley are inspired to forceful solos. When Senegal's star singer-guitarist Cheikh L brings stronger African inflections, the duo's adaptation to styles they can only have indirectly played before, and the murmurs of mutual respect, are quietly moving.
Of course, Brown's lieutenants are no substitute for the late Funky President, who even in his last year had the sort of showmanship and vocal charisma that is badly missed tonight. Fred Ross impersonates his soul screams, and Wunmi skips on her good foot. But it is Lo, on "It's a Man's, Man's Man's World", who first cruises and hectors into a song's heart, as Ellis's sax and Peter Madsen's gospel organ find its soft spots.
A final brass blast makes this summit take off. "Soul Makossa" moves into "Cold Sweat", Afro-funk guitar overtaken by brass that tightens up to Brown's old exacting standards. Wesley's trombone hits the front, Ross shreds his vocal chords on perhaps Brown's most primally explosive funk moment, Wunmi does the splits, and this musical meeting becomes more than academic.
"Who's your daddy?" Wesley asks during an encore of the JBs' own hits "Pass the Peas" and "Doin' It To Death". He is nobody's, really, just a great musician cut loose from the man who made him. The crowd, now seizing the opportunity to dance to funk straight from its originators, find that quite enough.
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