Fans dine out on jazz, blues and folk music Review
What: Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival Hub Event
Who: Hamilton Blues Society
When: Thursday night
Where: Hamilton Gardens Hub Reviewed by: Sam Edwards
One of the delights of this annual festival is the way the organisers have set aside an area and a time slot for live music to be performed at no cost to the public.
The Hub events run for the period of the festival between 5pm and 7pm. The music is eclectic, from jazz through blues to folk and traditional classics, and on Thursday night there were four or five gigs from some of our most talented blues musicians.
When the Out Of The Blues hit their straps they were fronted by an anonymous but extraordinary harmonica player, wearing a beltful of his instruments like a scuba diver about to hit the deeps. They were there to match keys and moods of the different works the band was offering, and did, perfectly. He was an event in his own right, and I have to apologise that I do not know him, because he deserves very specific praise, both for his instrumental virtuosity and his vocals.
The loyal audience gave him thoroughly-deserved support, even the kids learning what it is to be an audience, how to clap a riff and cheer great moves and sounds, and how to move with the music and just enjoy the moment.
Great setting for the gig, great playing, and some classics which remind one that the blues are not mindless entertainment, but emerge with a strangely compelling beauty from a culture of hardship and pain. The classic Sixteen Tons said it all of course, but the tendency to popularise the genre with rock elements does not do it a service.
Neither, incidentally, does a sound system which can make the noise so loud one cannot hear the music that supplies the emotional and dramatic colours which interpret the words.
But hey. That’s life, and one would not want to work the festival circuit without calling in on most of these remarkable twohour gigs. Each is a concert in its own right.
More details about the Festival Hub performances can be found on hgaf.co.nz. Soul acoustic trio Pia, Kyle and Lanz were to play last night, followed by Toni Thompson today, and Jayde P and the Drag Kings tomorrow.