Sanko at Scott’s
Marlbank caught a bit of the very soulful Myles Sanko at the newly refurbished Ronnie Scott’s – and very smart the club – which celebrated its 65th birthday at the end of October – looks too.
The place certainly warmed to the soul benediction found dotted all over Let It Unfold.
Full of Sanko and band keyboardist Tom O’Grady originals the singer showed plenty of stagecraft and his gesticulations to the crowd were very empathetic and drew the busy second house audience in.
O’Grady clearly a bit of an OG on the keys known for his work with Vanessa Haynes and Resolution 88 teased the groove along throughout carefully caressing the vocals with subtle riffs and customised licks that added motion and a pulsing sense of movement.
Soulful tip
The set had ‘Unfolding,’ ‘I Feel the Same,’ ‘Stronger,’ ‘Working It Out,’ ‘Dream Chaser,’ a cover of Roy Ayers 1970s classic ‘Everybody Loves the Sunshine,’ ‘More Than This,’ ‘Won’t Be Lonely,’ ‘Let Go’ and ‘Refuge.’
Later after the band did an instrumental Sanko came back and it was even better!
‘Blackbird Sing’ and ‘Rainbow in Colour’ were the pick of the older songs.
Picture of concentration: the smartly decked out Ronnie’s sound desk
The band sports strong sax soloing – a little in the Grover Washington Jr domain – from Gareth Lumbers who also switched to flute.
Drummer Ric Elsworth who is on Bastille‘s new album provided great groove and made subtle use of conga tucked over beside his kit. Guitarist Chris Booth delivered a lively solo at one point and there was a good sense of colour provided when Sam Ewens switched to flugel. Bass guitarist Jon Mapp could be funky when he needed to be. He made me think of a few John Deacon touches here and there.
Sanko proving terrific in the ultimate jazz club environment such as shrine of all shrines Ronnie’s we reckon should be of appeal to anyone who digs Mario Biondi, Brendan Reilly and Gregory Porter nudging over to a slinkier soulful side. And when he does a little spoken word monologue it’s more like Lou Rawls like the feeling you get a bit on the monologue of ‘Tobacco Road.’
Playing his home base of Cambridge the previous night Sanko’s band has been together for more than a decade and that togetherness is an important part of why this all worked so well.
‘Just hold on to the here and now for me and you’
But above all there’s a sincerity and a conscious feeling of self empowerment you gain from these fantastic new songs – there was such a feeling of empathy and shared communion at Ronnie’s on this showing. Above all we took away the lyrics of ‘I Feel the Same’ most. They seemed to sum up this fine performance and sentiments expressed: ‘You’re just like me, you bleed like I bleed, you cry just like I cry, you hurt just like I hurt.’
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