Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Timbre Music Restaurant and Bar
A capacity crowd of over 260 people turned up to watch the American band chase away the Tuesday night blues.
It didn’t matter that the Dirty Dozen Brass Band was lacking one member – baritone and soprano saxophonist Roger Lewis had fallen ill just before they came here.
The remaining six members, in comfy get-ups of short-sleeved shirts, T-shirts and jeans, got going from the word go, with an infectious energy that didn’t let up for a second throughout the two 50-minute sets.
They had the audience singing along during a spirited rendition of When The Saints Go Marching In, a familiar gospel hymn closely associated with New Orleans. Trumpeter-flugelhorn player Efrem Towns improvised with the playful line “Oh when the Saints win the Superbowl”, a reference to the city’s football team, the New Orleans Saints.
Each band member also showcased his winning ways during the solos. In the steamy serving of blues that closed the first set, guitarist Kipori Woods demonstrated how one could use the tongue to play the instrument, too.
Not to be outdone, the big-lunged Towns blew two instruments at the same time. Now that’s something to toot your horn about.
The music-making was certainly tiring work which may admirers thoughtfully left offerings of beer on the stage.
When the band returned for the second set, they kicked things up a notch and Towns urged the crowd to loosen up. The call was answered at first by one lone chap in a suit and a vivid pink shirt.
Danny Loong, co-founder of Singapore’s premier blues band Ublues, also won applause, jamming along on his guitar and duelling with Woods in a dazzling exchange of riffs.
By the time the band got to their classic My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now, half the crowd was up and grooving to the irresistible music.
As Lewis had promised in an earlier phone interview, this was music for the mind, the soul and certainly the body.
(ST)