Big Horns pay tribute to the history of African American music from the mid-Seventies to the turn of the century, with a massive 22-piece big band the star of the show.
Featured guest vocalists, Che Fu, Ria, Boh Runga and Kings. Along with ensemble singers Syah Folau, Ella Monnery and Iri Aumatangi.
The big band era is one crucial bedrock of what makes American music that country’s greatest contribution to the world. It came with minimal strings attached.
Dixon Nacey is the overall musical director of the nights show. A guitarist, composer and producer who spans Jazz and Pop. The musical director of Coca Cola Christmas in the Park since 2016.
Mike Booth, Jazz trumpet player and New Zealand music legend has organised the brass section.
My counting is possibly off but I count three trumpets, two trombones, a tuba, a sousaphone and four saxophones. I recognise Thabani Gapara on sax, who resembles Bo Diddley in the thick framed glasses he is wearing.
The sound is rich in depth and rides up like a massive sonic wall with careful layering. It needs a solid rhythm section to balance it, and drums and bass guitar hold the behemoth in place.
The sound desk has done a superlative job to get the right balance without overpowering the mix. The stage is about half the size of the Civic, so it is a tight fit.
Turntable scratching sound effects, which must be digital and not analogue, but still sound authentic.
An older audience which is appropriate. After the DJ’s Scizzorhands and Mashup have warmed up the crowd, we get to hear some of the origin history of Hip-Hop and Rap going back to DJs in New York City in 1974.
Culminating in a little of Rappers Delight from the Sugarhill Gang. The origin song of the brand new bag. It wasn’t James Brown who threatened to sue, but Nile Rodgers recognising the rhythm lines of Good Times.
Kick-off is with a mashup of California Love (Tupac) and No Diggity (Blackstreet). Nostalgic Old-Skool Hip-Hop phrasing as Aumatangi and Folau step forward. Booth lays out a great trumpet solo.
Shake it Baby! / To the Westside. ParliaFunkadelicment pushes its way in.
Kings Kingdon Chapple-Wilson follows and nails versions of Juicy and Hypnotize (Notorious B.I.G.). He is the best Rap vocalist by a slim margin for the evening. Most of the sound on this medley is Seventies urban Soul.
Ria steps up to lay great pipes on Back to Life (Soul II Soul). A classic of R’n’B and the bass guitar stands out. Later I notice it’s a five string.
Then its Che Fu and his own Misty Frequencies. His voice a little muted in the mix, he has the Soul sound like Stevie Wonder in his classic Seventies run when he dominated the early decade in the run up to full-blown Disco.
Boh Runga does her best performance of the evening with Try Again (Aaliyah). It’s a popcorn rhythm (thank you Godfather from the mists of the Sixties) with the horns laying it down on the bridge.
That lays it down for the rest of the show and the riches are abundant. We are privileged to see this calibre of an ensemble as the logistics must be staggering.
Unless they can build the crew as the Come Together ensemble have managed, since that first Neil Young Live Rust tribute in 2019. The first step on the path is to put it out there.
A few more cherry-picked highlights.
Ring,Ring,Ring (De La Soul) where the sax players each take a solo.
Ella Monnery and Kings lead a super version of Déjà Vu (Beyonce with Jay-Z), which the Revue cooks up the R’n’B to boiling point. Some of the Isaac Hayes Theme from Shaft wah-wah Funk lines lead it out.
Ria singing No More Drama (Mary Jo Blige) is possibly the most soulful performance of the evening.
Pony (Ginuwine) has a rare Nacey guitar solo. For this evening at least. The tempo is slower, and they get to close in on the Funkadelic sound again.
People Everyday (Arrested Development) is classic observational street Rap, loaded with fulminating riffs and capped by the bridge where the tuba deals out the heavy monster sound.
Holding their crotches and being obscene/ At first I ignored ‘em ‘cause I know their type/ They got drunk and got guns and they wanna fight.
Final song Jump Around (House of Pain). Everybody is in to sing. Has the relentless drone rhythm of Public Enemy.
Everybody jumps. In the best tradition of great ensembles, Big Horns kill ‘em an’ leave!
Rev. Orange Peel
Photography by Leonie Moreland
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