Dave Manington's Riff Raff: Hullabaloo

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Tim Giles (d)
Dave Manington (db)
Tomas Challenger (ts)
Rob Updegraff (g)
Brigitte Beraha (v)
Ivo Neame (p, el p, ky, cl)

Label:

Loop Records

February/2013

Catalogue Number:

LOOP1015

RecordDate:

November 2011

Singer Brigitte Beraha became a fifth member of the bassist-leader Dave Manington's new band Riff Raff following a successful performance together at the 2009 LOOP Festival. She's all over Hullabaloo, coming in somewhere between the Brazilian-influenced jazz-rock of Flora Purim-era Return to Forever and the stoner-folk of Fairport Convention's Sandy Denny. Indeed it's a less acoustic, more plugged-in effort this time out for the go-to double bassist Dave Manington, a sound he has been steadily working towards with this band since his quartet debut Headrush for the Collective's recording offshoot in 2008. Manington assembles fellow E17 and LOOP Collective musicians aside from Tim Giles, a distinctive drummer who still seems far too young to be the veteran of any group. Also referred to as ‘Walthamstow’s Norma Winstone', Beraha sings and scats from a wordless vocabulary save for a couple of her penned lyrics and it's these tracks, her lovely ‘Catch Me the Moon’, lifted from her elegant Babelfish album late last year (alongside Paul Clarvis and Chris Laurence) and the psych-folk ‘Pedro Bernado’ that deliver most. The crunchy bluesy jazz-rock guitar of Rob Updegraff, a Frisell disciple who made a good impression in bassist Rian Vosloo's band Twelves, fits well into the electric jazz environment and although it can feel a little cluttered in places, there's a cohesive band sound. Keyboardist Ivo Neame also on accordion, Outhouse/Red Snapper Tom Challenger's edgy Wayne Shorter influenced tenor sax and Manington's supple bass are a few of the standout voices in British contemporary jazz today.

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