Review: Camilla George: Edinburgh International Festival, four stars

Factor in a deep interest in Nigeria’s Ibibio culture, music and folklore, plus a route to the jazz stage which runs through the storied Tomorrow’s Warriors jazz programme – fellow alumni include members of Ezra Collective, The Comet Is Coming and Sons Of Kemet, as well as drummer Moses Boyd and fellow saxophonist Nubya Garcia – and you can see where the Afrofuturist tag often applied to her comes from.

George brought this winning confection of styles and influences to the Edinburgh International Festival for a concert in its excellent and well-attended series at The Hub, but in the form of a traditional jazz quartet: regular collaborator Daniel Casimir on double bass, American Rod Youngs on drums, and impressive young Brit School graduate Renato Paris on keys and improvised vocals. For his singing prowess, George has described him as “a little Donny Hathaway”. Rare praise indeed, though entirely merited as it turned out. Paris also brought to mind a Tomorrow’s Warriors alumnus of an earlier generation, Cleveland Watkiss.

Upbeat opener Mami Wata introduced us to the rich sound of George’s alto sax, and gave solo spots to Paris and Youngs before a change of tempo and mood for The People Could Fly, title track from her 2018 album. More contemplative – almost mournful – it brought in Paris’s vocals and saw Casimir and Youngs in quiet conversation, the drummer using just his hands on the snare at times.

Read more

• ‘I can’t breathe’: The poignant, provocative power of the last words ever spoken
• This one’s for John: five-star tribute to a much-missed great of Scottish music
• A murderer, a lover, and a levitator in a five-star marvel. We want more
• A party for a great composer, and what a way this is to start the feast
• Brilliant. Vibrant. Masterful. If there are tickets left, grab them. Five stars

That was one of several points at which the band showed the range of dynamics at play in the music – in the quietest moments you could literally hear the whispering saxophone echoing off the ceiling of The Hub’s main performance space, sited in a converted church.

Ukpakka Ekpo started moody, with Youngs using brushes, but developed its strut when George kicked in over a walking bassline from Casimir. Another slow groover was Eka Abasi, from George’s upcoming fourth album, with Paris moving onto the Nord electric keyboard from the grand piano. He stayed there for Ekpe, from 2022 album Ibio-Ibio, jiggling the instrument’s pitch bend toggle to give his playing a funky wah-wah sound. Think Head Hunters-era Herbie Hancock. The same piece drew one of the biggest cheers of the night after a long drum passage from Youngs reached a rolling crescendo before George jumped back in.

When not playing, George would loiter in the backline, or crouch down at the front. As the gig wore on and the grooves started to build, she would stand, twitching and pulsing to the music before a nod to the band and another blast of her sax – stately and precise, but also fluid and rich.

Paris said afterwards that it was one of the most chill gigs the band had ever played, which you can either take as a compliment or as a comment on the relatively sedate nature of an Edinburgh Festival jazz audience. If the second, they made up for it at the end with a deserved standing ovation for one of the established forces of British jazz.