Hustler’s Convention back with a Lightnin’ Rod at Jazz Café
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
In an age where the words ‘bang’, ‘buck’ and ‘more’ are as inseparable as ‘wolf’ and Wall Street denying an audience an encore is, for many, a sin worthy of a major financial penalty.
Yet when Jalal Mansur Nuriddin decides to curtail his performance before he is even asked to reward paying punters with one last song, there is no riotous outcry for refunds of the £10 coughed up for tickets. Two reasons explain this: Jalal made it clear as he took to the stage to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Hustler’s Convention, the seminal proto-rap album that he cut under the name of Lightnin’ Rod, that he had endured long years of bootlegging and contractual short-changing which have amounted to a shyster’s retention of due royalties. One sensed empathy rather than pity among the faithful, possibly because of the wider resonance of the declaration. Jalal was not the first and surely won’t be the last case of this kind. Secondly, what the audience did hear was a set in which depth easily compensated for any perceived lack of length.
Clad in shades, a black beanie from which sprouted white Afro puffs, beige patterned jersey and leather trousers Jalal looked every inch the pioneering rapper who, as a member of The Last Poets, had helped effect the transition of early 1970s political, percussive spoken word to hip-hop many years later. More important than his charisma was the undimmed power of Jalal’s voice. The fluid cadences, sharp leaps of pitch and sustained rhythmic momentum, which had such a decisive influence on British Acid Jazzers Galliano, were still intact. To say that a historic figure was in the house was a hype to be believed.
Recreating the original Hustler’s Convention, which featured a pan-black music hall of fame (Kool & The Gang, King Curtis, Julius Hemphill) was always going to be a tall order but Jazz Warriors International, MD’d by Orphy Robinson and bolstered by the presence of drummer Rod Youngs and guitarist Hawi Gondwe, made a very decent fist of it. They basically stirred a bubbling, molten funk under Jalal’s hot verses and also worked in ecstatically soulful choruses from vocalist Cleveland Watkiss and trombonist Dennis Rollins. The concise, pithy tales of characters such as Sport and the evocative images of street life on the edge gelled effectively with the short, sharp shocks from the band.
When Jalal suddenly called time on proceedings it felt as if the needle had slid off the original black vinyl. Side one was done. When it comes, side two, to possibly be entitled Hustler’s Detention, should be well worth paying the headlining artist for.
– Kevin Le Gendre
– Photo © Roger Thomas