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Matthew Herbert Big Band
by: Tim Bean 30 april 04

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Brassed off with bells on

The last date on the Matthew Herbert Big Band UK tour saw the auditorium of the Barbican draw in east-end slopping fringes and the dress-like your dad crowd alongside older art patrons for this fusion.This fusion thankfully is not equivalent to the Miko disco-cut ups of Mozart circa '79. This sound is more Glenn Miller with an echo of Kaos pads.The MHBB song structures have a more contemporary inkling too, but never veer from the essential big band brash swoon.Beginning with a sampled cup of tea worked up into a rhythmic orchestration, the gig began a little like a tourist square spectacle. The full oboe, sax and trumpet sections arrived, accompanied by a drummer, bass player and conductor to drown out the "oh isn't he so clever"s and fake extenuated laughs.Seven songs from his Goodbye Swingtime, one track from Bodily Functions and another from an early soundtrack could not be shrugged at. 'Everything's Changed' saw the introduction of the sweet, classic and swooping vocals of Dani Siciliano in accompaniment to the swing slander of the trumpets. From then on Dani altered her bottom half every song (short-skirt and leggings not legs), while balloons, camera flashes, type writers and torn Daily Mails were consequentially added to rhythms via sampler. The bands' instruments were also recycled using cliché electro-tweakery effects by the elasticised Mr Herbert. Matthew, who like a child wanting to play with his new toy, jumped up and down and strutted the stage to involve himself more in the orchestrations he penned. Yet this rendition saw him relegated to a sample fiddler and at best harmonium soloist on one song.Despite wondering what Herbert was actually adding to the performance, apart from chutzpah, a fantastic range of sounds certainly titillated the ears. From powerful umpah and Philly theme tune remembrances to congoan bouncers, the fun element withstood overt political references to the hypocrisy of Blair.
www.magicandaccident.com/

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