Blitz The Ambassador – Gig Review (Cargo, London, 3 August 2011)
Singing might be the oldest form of music, but the horn is the oldest instrument. It speaks to something deep in the brain, something primitive, when humans first worked out that if we stuck our mouths over the end of that kudu horn it could make birds fly out of trees three valleys away.
Fast forward 40,000 years, and you can still touch that power – and there won’t be a dead buck in sight. All you’ve got to do is put, let’s say, a sax, a trumpet, and a trombone on stage. Add drums and guitars (purely as backup, you understand). Then toss a rapper into the mix.
What happens? Well, let’s just say that Cargo is still scraping sweat off the ceiling.
Blitz The Ambassador was the rapper. The Ghanaian-born, American-living MC is riding high off an excellent album, Native Sun. This was his touring unit, and if the show proved that one thing it’s that Blitz knows exactly where the focus should be. Sure, it’s his name on the flyer, but it’s his band, The Embassy Ensemble, who do all the heavy lifting.
That gorgeous horn section spat, jumped and growled like a three-headed lion. They were the engine of this remarkable show, pumping out zillions of volts a note and making sure that anybody who felt iffy about Blitz’s music felt differently when the show finally rode to a halt.
And what music. Native Sun is a stunning mix of West African psychedelia, jazz and hip-hop, perfectly produced and superbly masterminded by Blitz. He and the Ensemble were a military-drilled unit, a precision operation who produced an incredibly tight show. The real trick was that while this was clearly the product of hours and hours of rehearsal, the energy never dimmed, never got stale. Whether they were tearing through the reckless ‘Akwaaba’, improvising and stretching out the single ‘Best I Can’ or adding some muscle to album opener ‘En Trance’, they never let up, never looked anything less than outstanding.
Simply put? Blitz rocked Cargo off its damn hinges. This was a show for the ages.
PREVIOUSLY: Blitz ‘Best I Can’ ft Corneille + Native Sun
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http://twitter.com/rosshagan Ross Hagan
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