Jazz Festival 2006, The Front Room
November 7 | Reviewed by Brannavan Gnanalingam

THE Wellington International Jazz Festival had its headlining act last night, where blues legend Billy Boy Arnold took the stage. Having started off playing with Bo Diddley in the 50s, Arnold has certainly had time to hone his craft – he’s gained international renown for his harmonica playing, which he learned off another blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson (he just knocked on Williamson’s door as a kid). While his career went on hiatus for a couple of decades (where he became a bus driver and a parole officer), he came back to a vengeance in the 90s, and stands tall as a blues legend.

The night was kicked off by British bluesman Mike Cooper. He played a leisurely set demonstrating great skill and rhythm on the lap-guitar. He played songs from bluesmen like Fred McDowell and Arthur Alexander (who’s been covered by the likes of the Beatles – with ‘Anna’ – and the Rolling Stones). While his set was easy to listen to, it did seem to lack a bit of intensity. It was the type of music you’d put on the background to study – nice but unthreatening. He did however, have a great shirt.

Just before Arnold was to come on-stage, a fire alarm went off sending the packed crowd into a cold Wellington storm. It was a false alarm, but was reputedly the third false alarm the venue has had during the Festival. Methinks something needs to be done about the sensitivity of the Front Room’s smoke detectors.

With the crowd being a bit chilly and wet, Arnold’s band decided to warm the crowd up first before getting Arnold on-stage. Their spirited playing and intuitive team-work was excellent – a joy to watch all night, and they cranked some nice guitar and piano solos (though it would have been nice to see some drums or bass to add a bit of variety). Arnold came on soon after and proceeded to impress with his playing. Arnold walked through some of his hits from the bitterness of ‘El Dorado Cadillac’ and the bravado of ‘A Man of Considerable Taste’ to ‘Greenville’ and ‘Me and Piney Brown’. His songs covered his entire career and captured a big band/Delta blues style. If anything, I’d have liked to have seen more of his harmonica playing – the middle section of his set missed that out a bit, and it was only in the rollicking encore featuring his 1958 hit ‘Rockinitis’ that his harmonica was let loose (coupled with a very funky piano riff underneath) on the very large and seemingly impressed crowd.

He also didn’t patronise his Kiwi band, allowing them space to solo and yelling out encouragement during their solos. The piano solo in ‘A Man of Considerable Taste’ in particular was fantastic, and the guitar work was excellent too. The band were certainly in tune with each others’ solos, but the only complaint was that they backed off too much with Arnold’s ones. Obviously it’d be very intimidating playing with a legend like Arnold, but some of his harmonica solos and riffs were screaming for the band to follow and push him along further. Nevertheless they gave him very good support and it was a pleasure seeing a blues legend at work.