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| KIKI Band |
It has begun! And by 'it' I mean the long-awaited Autumn Jazz Festival in Krakow where I hope to see you all in the next two months.
And it started with a heavy kick provided by the Kazutoki Umezu KIKI Band, a group well known and always welcomed by Krakow audience (as they have played here before).
I admit it is a relatively easy task to write about this group's concert since you know exactly what to expect from this band and the band fulfills those (high) expectations. Plus you can support your words with a selection of decent quality vids easily find on the web.
(polish readers can also find the text published on jazzarium.pl)
(polish readers can also find the text published on jazzarium.pl)
KIKI's music is a well shaken cocktail: swiss precision, a doze of (typical to japanese music scene) madness, catchy melodies, massive rock sound, heavy riffs, crazy speed rhythms and some ass-kicking soloing to go with it. All of that within a strict form of a rock song (verse-chorus-bridge; with the exception of multi-themathic, extended prog-rock piece that opened the 2nd set). The instumental prowess is also enhanced by musical showmanship as the melodic bass solos bring to mind Victor Wooten, under the rusty free-jazz sounds made by Kazutoki his sound is clear and sweet like that of David Sanborn's alto (and I mean it as a compliment), Natsuki Kido could be an incarnation of Gary Moore (or another guitar-shredder) and the drummer doesn't slack off either, proud to defend's the rock honor of USA.
