Deva Mahal is an exceptional Soul singer and songwriter in the classic American tradition of great Black female artists.
She is a commanding presence on stage. Big in voice and big in stature. We get to see many great acts at the Fork, but it is rare to hear a singer who can fill the room immediately and lift the ceiling as well as everyone’s spirit.
Last time I saw her was at the Brookland Bowl for WOMAD 2023. A big outdoor amphitheatre and the presence was similar. It’s not just physical volume, it is the heart and soul too.
The Average White Band behind her tonight were mostly present for that earlier concert. They are all dressed in white. Mahal stands apart in a striking red outfit.
Great Soul diva’s need great backing singers, and these were Aja Ropata and Kat Little. The back room comprised Leonardo Coghini keyboards, Jules Blewman guitar, Chris Wethey bass and Darren Mathiassen drums.
The show starts with Fire, and the band instantly snap into classic Sixties and Seventies Soul Train mode. It’s been a long time coming. Not the only reference to Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come this evening.
Immediately Mahal stokes up the gospel fire in her voice. But I was set on fire/ And you can’t heal these burns.
Co-writer Michael Howell is called on stage to help with guitar on Run Me Through, and this is a showcase for the distinctive phrasing which is a hallmark of the great Black American singers.
Deva is the daughter of Taj Henry Fredericks Mahal of course, a great Roots music artist and compiler in the same sense that Ry Cooder is.
She played in a tribute concert for Aretha Franklin, with her father in New York in 2018. A great choice for that show as she has the pipes to do it. Mahal has an earthier tone, and she would be closer in voice to some of the great Gospel singers like Dorothy Love Coates.
Goddam must take some inspiration from Nina Simone and Mississippi Goddam. A funk bass and wah-wah guitar. Strong and sultry and instead of Jazz, the singer sounds like Etta James doing a Civil Rights’ song.
Kat Little
Backing vocalist Kat Little opened the evening. The contrast in styles was striking.
I know little about Little except she comes from Whanganui and plays her music mostly in Wellington.
Again, she has a striking voice but this time from the Folk to Jazz spectrum. Piercing pure tones which reach the heights with perfect pitch and a laser intensity.
She performs several of her own recent compositions which combine poetry and Jazz styled interplay, with her accompanying guitarist Sam Nakamura.
Themed around memories, the essence of nature and the spirit mother, she displays the intensity and weird edginess of someone like Jazmine Mary. It is remarkable that she can compel the audience to be quiet. The music is stark and minimal.
This is Friday night of course, and the drinks are flowing.
She picks a choice early Joni Mitchell song to cover, I Think I Understand. Sophisticated idiosyncratic Folk and it gets witchy when the shadow tries to block the night.
Covering Judee Sill’s The Kiss is Folk with an angelic church spirit.
Soul music of the ice and white Northern climes where the aurora borealis dances.
Deva Mahal
It is unfair to pick a highlight, but her cover of Gerry Goffin and Carole King‘s classic Take a Giant Step was superb. First done by the Monkees on their debut album. Father Taj does a great version on his landmark album Giant Steps/ De Old Folks at Home in 1969.
Mahal uses a similar arrangement and surpasses his version with great Gospel testifying thrown in.
Dream begins with Aja leading. When Mahal comes in with a deep and muscled soul voice, she sounds like Madeline Bell. Check out Blue Mink from the early Seventies when she found a home in England.
This concert tour is to promote a new EP Future Classic, Vol.1: Classic.
Travel With Me is Gospel Soul and she really does take the roof off with this and brings everyone metaphorically to their knees. Or else dissolving in rapture which we can’t do physically because it’s not in our nature. Likely a nod to the great Sister, Rosetta Tharpe that is.
Will Anything Change leads the EP and it is powerful statement of intent. The reference to Sam Cooke is here again as the title is sung like a lament. But the attitude is activist and accusatory. Singing about people dying in the street and blood-stained hands, and we are in the time of Blaxploitation movies and music. Gil Scott-Heron and Home is Where the Hatred Is.
In a sense she is bridging Martin Luther King/ Sam Cooke/ Blowin’ in the Wind to There’s a Riot Goin’ On.
Worthy moves the dynamic back to the pelvis and the backbone with Womack and Womack style Soul Funk. Where the drummer is the Law and lays the beat on the One.
Back for the encore, and if Stand In rides on the same Night Train as Gladys Knight, then Wicked is all tribal beats and electro-funk.
Deva Mahal finishes with dance, and We are wicked now! / We are going off!
Rev Orange Peel
Photographs by Chris Zwaagdyk
Diva Mahal
Kat Little
