“I play all over the world, but it’s not every day I get asked to play in Lewisham.” Moses Boyd, beaming at us from above his drum kit, seems as happy to be on stage at The Albany as the crowd is to see him. It shouldn’t be a surprise though: the Mercury nominated, MOBO winning jazz drummer, composer and producer grew up round the corner in Catford, got his formal training down the road at Trinity Laban, and has come up as part of a genre-shattering wave of new UK jazz artists, many based in South East London.
Arguably, the beating heart of this community is right here in Deptford, where the now infamous Steam Down collective throw their joyously free-wheeling nights: communal, high-octane improvised jams, melding spiritual jazz, West African rhythms and UK bass music. Boyd’s approach to jazz is similarly free of boundaries, drawing on everything from grime, hip-hop and dubstep, to Cuban percussion and West Indian soca.
Tonight we hear this in all its glory, as he leads his band through a breathtaking voyage of tracks from Dark Matter – Boyd’s 2020 album – the first time he’s played it live (he’s pretty sure anyway). Seated to one side, facing his fellow musicians rather than the audience, Boyd lets the music speak for itself. And how it does. Tracks like ‘2 Far Gone’ with its garage inflections, and frankly ecstatic sax solos from Quinn Oulton remind us that jazz is a dish best served live, in a thronging crowd of people. A masterful, hypnotic drum solo from Boyd to open ‘Axiom’ swings the spotlight back his way, as he deftly serves up a lesson in how to build layers and colour and tension all with one instrument.
There’s an immediacy and joy here at The Albany that many of us have sorely missed over the past few years. And when Moses Boyd welcomes childhood friend and fellow South London jazz innovator, Theon Cross to the stage – “This man redefined what the lower frequencies can do!” – for the buoyant, bubbling ‘Rye Lane Shuffle’, we’re reminded of the things music can do to you when it’s live and loud. Inspired by his father’s South London sound system, Cross creates a deep down and sticky bass line with his tuba, the kind you can feel in the pit of your stomach and the bottom of your bones. It’s beautiful.
It’s a celebration of Lewisham too, and its rich roots in musical history – a place that’s been central in sound system culture and British reggae music, running all the way up to today’s UK jazz scene. Tonight’s show is a part of ‘Love Is Attention’, celebrating Lewisham’s Borough of Culture status, in which award-winning songwriter, producer and musician (and Deptford resident) Dave Okumu showcases Lewisham’s vibrant music scene, with artists like Jessie Ware, Steam Down, Hak Baker and Joe Armon-Jones bubbling up in venues throughout the borough. Later on in the year, the borough’s history of activism will be told through music, in ‘Rebel Music’ – celebrating everything from the legendary Black People’s Day of Action to its punk and DIY scenes.
Back in The Albany, before final track ‘BTB’ – with its speedy percussion rolling and moving the crowd forward, anchoring some joyously noodly guitar from Artie Zaitz (another South East Londoner, who stuided with David Okumu – Boyd shouts out his West Indian ancestors for the soca rhythms they gave to the world, and that have become so central to his own musical journey. “These rhythms literally saved my life,” he says. Tonight it feels like they’ve saved ours too.
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Words: Emma Finamore
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