Jazz breaking news: Van Morrison, Bob Dylan And Dr John Get Hopped Up
Monday, July 5, 2010
Now in its third year the Hop Farm Festival in Paddock Wood, Kent, showed that festivals don’t have to sell their soul to corporate branding and sponsorship to pull off one of the musical delights of the summer.
In a bucolic countryside setting that felt more like WOMAD than the Reading Festival, veteran promoter Vince Power, who used to run the Mean Fiddler, Jazz Café and numerous rock festivals, put on a pleasingly diverse programme that brought to mind mid-1980s Glastonbury when it was a true mash-up of rock, blues, roots, jazz and world music rather than the over-reliance on karaoke pop acts that it has become today.
Over the weekend of 2-3 July, Los Lobos, Richard Thompson, and Dr John were among highlights that appealed to the more discerning punter and paved the way for Van Morrison on the Friday night. Opening with a breezy ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ this was yer man in a warmer mood than usual, perhaps no surprise considering the weather, hitting an emotional curve with a tender, ‘And The Healing Has Begun’, before romping home with ‘Moondance’ as the night sky repaid the compliment.
Growling gutbucket acoustic blues from Seasick Steve proved to be a real crowd pleaser during Saturday while the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble cooked it up in the Big Tent, but it was headliner Bob Dylan who was the real coup for the Hop Farm. Playing his only UK show this year he has found a deep, swinging dirty-blues groove in recent years that’s straight out of the early-1960s honky tonks and fits his cracked, Howlin’ Wolf’s son-in-law voice better than any setting since The Band.
Still notoriously unpredictable from performance to performance, and always a big opinion divider, the Hop Farm appearance turned out to be a cracker, opening with a gritty ‘Rainy Day Woman’ before reworked versions of ‘Memphis Blues Again’ and ‘Just Like A Woman’ led into a double-shot of two of his greatest pieces from the past two decades, ‘High Water (For Charley Patton)’ and ‘Blind Willie McTell’. His reinterpretations of his classic pieces don’t always find favour with those of a less adventurous slant but like any seasoned jazzer he constantly reinvents and reinvestigates his own work rather than deliver a greatest hits set with audio enhancement, lasers and fireworks.
It’s music that demands intimacy but when the spirit is right it works its magic on a much bigger scale. Looking surprisingly relaxed and clearly having fun he’s even prone to some quirky improvisation on harmonica and organ these days, influenced one hopes by some of the wonderful old-time jazz he spins on his Theme Time Radio Hour broadcasts.
Story and photo: Jon Newey