These formidable artists can draw a crowd on their own merits but as a collective, they pack a mighty musical punch. Alice the Suffolk soul sister, long time friend and collaborator to the music man Quantic brought the flavour of South America to Scotland for one night only tonight.
A very different sound for fans of Quantic aka Will Holland, who is hugely influenced by his adopted homeland of Columbia. To reassure you these Latin salsa beats where in no way related to your Gloria Estefan – no Miami sound machine here folks step away – this was proper collaborative funky bluesy folky latin soul.
Holland on guitar led a six-piece band which complemented one another perfectly bringing a vibrant foot tapping hip swinging sound. Alongside Quantic we were introduced to fiddler Mike Simmonds – ‘fingers of flames’ extraordinaire and right hand man to Alice – and the African conga percussion of Combo Barbaro’s Freddy Colorado, a human Zebedee who lead us all in a conga.
The legend on the keys of the Fender Rhodes piano was a slick dude hailin’ from Peru, the one and only Senior Alfredito Linares.
The band kicked it off easy loungey style with an instrumental, then Alice took to the stage opening with ‘I’ll Keep My Light In My Window’, the latest single from Look Around The Corner album. Alice was a charming host and butters us up well with “Hello lovely Edinburgh people!” She likes a bit of banter, sadly most of which due to acoustics we couldn’t hear.
Alice’s voice is faultless, a very sexy soul senorita, looking like she loves what she does and gives it what she can, tonight with a latin strut in her stride. This did not go unnoticed as I caught a mention of “she’s got some pair o’ pipes eh?”. True praise indeed.
The accordion accompanied a cracking cover of ‘Golden Brown’ and for the Quantic Soul Orchestra fans amongst us we grooved to ‘Pushin’ On’, minus AR’s James Brown esq. scream on this occasion, and ‘End of the Road’.
If you want some world in your music they are well worth a listen.
Look Around The Corner is their latest LP released in April 2012 on Tru Thoughts
And there are a couple of 6music sessions, with Craig Charles and with Lauren Laverne.
Catch them at festivals across Europe this year, you won’t regret it… they bring the sunshine in.