Christian Scott leads his innovative quintet on Saturday night. Carlyle V. Smith/CapitalBop

by Giovanni Russonello
Editor-in-chief

Over the course of a five-song set and one encore on Friday night, the Christian Scott Quintet satisfied its true believers and won over more than a few converts. On the surface, this group might seem to have its work cut out for it: Playing instrumental music, it’s already at a disadvantage with most in the under-40 crowd not enrolled in music school. At the same time, the band’s slash-and-burn dynamics, propelled by hip-hop and indie-rock beats and the frontman’s slyly confrontational trumpet attack, doesn’t seem positioned to go down easily with the elder generation, either.

Still, by the end of Scott’s set, the club was resounding with hoots and hollers, many from those who – having showed up to check out the club more than this particular act – had been stoic a few songs in. The night began with “Love as Revolution,” one of about 30 new compositions Scott has been working out with the quintet in preparation for a triple-album release next year. A burner, the tune found the band more overtly in touch with hip-hop’s bombastic heartbeat than it has been in the past. The group returned to this mode two songs later with another new number, “Liar, Liar,” to which drummer Jamire Williams added a heady dose of mercurial rhythmic tapestry. On “Spy Boy, Flag Boy,” also a fresh composition, Scott paid homage to his New Orleans roots – and the great Mardi Gras Indian tradition amongst which he grew up – with Williams transmuting his urban pound into a more tribal beat, governed by the tom-tom.

The set finished with “The Eraser,” a tune composed by Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, as Scott stretched the melody like a thin canvas over Lawrence Fields’ subtly syncopated chord pattern. Egged on by a now-eager crowd, the quintet returned to the stage for an encore of “K.K.P.D.,” a tumultuous protest anthem from 2010’s Yesterday You Said Tomorrow that Scott wrote after a humiliating attack at the hands of a white police officer in his hometown. With guitarist Matt Stevens applying heat underneath Williams’ pattering drums, Scott brought the band to a slow simmer, then a rumbling boil.

CapitalBop staff photographer Carlyle V. Smith was at Bohemian to grab some shots.

Scott's trumpet awaits him prior to the early set on Saturday night. Carlyle V. Smith/CapitalBop

Christian Scott goes in on a solo. Carlyle V. Smith/CapitalBop

Christian Scott's trumpet wafts into the Caverns. Carlyle V. Smith/CapitalBop

Scott thanks the audience after his set, as Bohemian owner Omrao Brown looks on. Carlyle V. Smith/CapitalBop

—

More of Carlyle V. Smith’s work can be seen at soulfotography.com.

Comments

comments