Orlando le Fleming and Romantic Funk, London review — fusion jazz in impressive new venue – Financial Times
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For bassist Orlando le Fleming, the band name Romantic Funk conjures the rhythmic complexities of Weather Report rather than the luxuriant vocals of Luther Vandross. His bass guitar lines draw on the angular shapes, passing twiddles, driving riffs and crunchy slaps that marked the left field of fusion jazz in the 1970s and ’80s. But he doesn’t just let things lie. Le Fleming’s compositions change texture, tempo and mood, conjoining narrative twists into an overarching form.
Le Fleming began the project seven years ago during a near-two-decade stint in New York (he moved there from the UK in 2003). He released the first of two CDs under that name in 2017 and has amassed an impressive folder of high-end credits. He’s now back in England and this gig presented new music for an upcoming recording, adding second-set covers of compositions by Wayne Shorter as an indicator of style. American trumpeter Philip Dizak has been involved in the project from the start, but the rest of the quintet joined the project more recently and are based in the UK.
The evening’s core pulse was fusion jazz, but le Fleming conjoined its many rhythmic shapes into a single piece. Here complex webs of rhythm firmed into a driving rocky pulse and hardcore funk fractured into out-of-tempo swirls. As the evening progressed, textures and rhythms underwent subtle shifts or changed dramatically, prompted by an inner cue, though at times they took a few moments to gel. The detail, captured by World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens’ state of the art sound, was impressive. This new intimate concert space, part of the Nine Elms regeneration project, delivers acoustic clarity with remarkable warmth.
The evening began with Tom Cawley’s watery electric piano conjuring a sense of mystery while a hiss of James Maddren’s cymbals implied the beginnings of a pulse. Le Fleming, on bass guitar, delivered prowls of funk energy and the unfolding melody of “Repose” entered, closely harmonised by trumpet and alto sax. “Spots of Time” was high-energy, “Garden Sherry Blues”, with le Fleming on double bass, a detailed investigation of light-touch swing; Cawley first rippled romantically then stabbed venomously behind Nathaniel Facey’s alto sax. “Sense of the Sacred” ended the set, starting as a ballad and ending as a thrash.
Solos emerged throughout the evening to embellish mood and add spice. Trumpeter Dizak’s elegant sustains, tonal control and flurries at speed stood out, while Cawley’s grand piano balladry on “Wandering Talk” was lovely. But it was saxophonist Facey’s full-tone, angular articulations and controlled urgency that set the evening alight and brought the second-set cover of Shorter’s shape-shifting “Plaza Real” to a high; he was equally assured on Shorter’s fast and furious “Freezing Fire”, which appeared later in the set.
The evening ended with “Don’t Dwell On It”, another twist-and-turn original with solos for all. The standard “Stella by Starlight” was the encore, acoustic, unembellished and beautifully played.
★★★☆☆
