"Hey tonight we've made history, cuz we've made posh people say GET ME"
Urban Classics last night was both funny and quite good. Dreamt up by Genevieve Dowokpo of the youth organisation Bigger Fish, the concept was about bringing together urban and classical music. A wet dream for liberal parents this was a shared family experience for the many who filled Hackney Empire last night. The one-off performance brought together the BBC orchestra, with a mish-mash of figures representing 'urban music' - Davinchie (on the ivories), Bruzu, Purple, Pase, Tor and (human jukebox) Faith SFX.
By far the stand-out performer was Bruza, who just seems comfortable with what ever audience he gets put in front of. He also seemed comfortable having an orchestra behind him…almost mimicking the waving hand gestures of the conductor and inviting all fifty-or-so of its members to shout “get me” with the rest of the audience. Though at one point he briefly forgot where he was, and called for “selector" to "wheel it up” as the crowd’s energy reached the night's crescendo…. only one or two members of the orchestra stopped while others carried on… Bruza then had to restate the principle in plain English “orchestra stop!”…then explained “in our scene we stop a song when it is going well and then start it again” (some orchestra members looked at each other…baffled).
Other mcs performed reasonably well without ever hitting Bruza’s heights. Pase had a whole set of lyrics based on celebrating his Mum's Irish lineage, which could’ve been written in an O’Neil’s bar….Purple (who's at Dirty Canvas tonight)merked unoriginal mcs and Tor prowled the stage with her conscious lyrics about better paths. I saw Faith SFX at the last Notting Hill Carnival so knew what to expect, but he again left jaws dropped as he showed how he could beatbox, scratch, run basslines and sing (with a great voice) ….all at THE SAME TIME! In the cleverly worked opening to his performance, the orchestra began and worked up to a soloist.... the whole audience were straining their necks to see who and what was playing (a strange mix between a violin and oboe) and then Faith SFX reached the stage serenading with his mic.
So the middle classes learnt a bit about grime, maybe they’ve dropped a few ‘GET MEs’ over lattes this morning. There were also lots of young people there – a sign perhaps that this was a rare chance for under 18s to see some of their heros. I also overheard some family members of one of the performing mcs who seemed genuinely proud that this strange bedroom hobby was now being paraded in front of the BBC’s orchestra for all to see.
The whole thing is being aired on 1xtra (http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/) on Saturday and I'm sure will be downloadable thereafter
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