Jean Toussaint, the former Art Blakey saxophonist from the Virgin Islands via New York, who took root in London a decade ago, likes to party while he's playing jazz. Though he is a powerful sax technician with a mellow tone, an early-Coltrane sonority and a subtle understanding of the straight-jazz tradition, Toussaint's musical vehicles tend to be Caribbean and Latin styles, Blakeyesque bluesy soulfulness, and funk. He telescoped the lot into one expanded band this week.
The gig was an initiative from the enterprising organisation Joyful Noise, which encouraged Toussaint and guitarist and record producer Tony Remy to develop a jazz-funk big band with an African undertow. Given Remy's jazz-funk credentials (he is one of the most effortlessly grooving of world-class fusion guitarists), Toussaint's interest in the same territory, and a powerful line-up, including trumpeters Kevin Robinson and Byron Wallen and saxophonists Jason Yarde and Tony Kofi, it wasn't surprising that things got pretty hot.
It wasn't a conventional jazz big band; they were driven by a wall-to-wall percussion assault, and there was an almost constant exclamatory backbeat. They drew, too, on fusion's arranging styles, sounding at times like a mix of a Stevie Wonder backing track and a Crusaders session. The players cranked the volume right up, and such density, coupled with a lot of drums and blaring brass, can blur the intricacies into a noise-wall in the QEH. There was only one spacious piece all night, a heartfelt tenor sax tribute by Toussaint to the late pianist Kenny Kirkland.
But if stretches of the show went by in a shouting monotone, the atmosphere was often exciting and the soloing good. Toussaint used much of the material from his 1995 Life I Want album, and the punchy arrangements and strong rhythmic drive of the band improved them. Toussaint's soul-jazz stomp on the funky Short Straw showed how infectiously he engages with this style. Kevin Robinson delivered a scorching blast on a raucous Latin feature (duetting at times with Toussaint, a variation in dynamics of which the evening could have used more). The obligatory storming percussion exchange was more exhilarating than usual for such exploits. With a more separated sound quality, this could be a distinctive and spirited project.
