The Bulls Head 19th April 2004
“Old new borrowed and Blues”
Long time London’s favourite Japanese Blues player Saiichi Sugiyama was unveiling some new tracks from forthcoming cd “So am I”, and giving a rare outing for his latest band with acclaimed lyricist, poet, and percussionist extraordinaire Pete Brown.
If Bands bear any relationships to football teams this lot is Chelsea given Saiichi’s almost Roman Abramovich obsession to field the best possible players in every position. Saiichi’s latest line up includes a rhythm section of top drummer Dave Innes long associated with such luminaries as Midge Ure etc, the always awesome American bassist producer David Hadley Ray whose US funk sensitivity adds a transatlantic feel to the proceedings, add in a sparkling mid field of key board supremo Paddy Milner with acclaimed singer-songwriter-guitarist Sue Balingall and you have the makings of a great band but its to the twin strike force of Saiichi Sugiyama guitar/vocals and Pete Brown percussion/vocals where the writing responsibility lies and the performance plaudits deservedly go.
So we had an evening with six excellent musicians performing a range of self penned material which with apologies to weddings everywhere comprised the best in old new borrowed and Blues. The old were in the shape of classics from The Pete Brown Jack Bruce song book like Politician and White Room which came over as well remembered old friends but given the vocal and percussive energy exhibited in performance by lyricist Pete Brown reminded us that these classics of the Blues Rock genre still have an important message for today.
The new comprised some great new songs from Sugiyama-Sugiyama Brown which covered subjects as diverse as parenting, commuting, to old and new Japan and the borrowed is the variety of genre reflected in the new material to take it from Blues/ Blues Rock to beyond. While the exciting new material stretched both band and audience Saiichi showed that we hadn’t lost a great Blues player with his awesome guitar and vocals on the Blues tracks like “Some where down the road” and “What’s going on”, and while I don’t want to single out any of the new tracks other than to advise you dear reader to get your hands on the new cd “So am I” on its forthcoming release I would be remiss not to advise you that the new track “Old Samurai” apart from being a high light of the album and reminiscent of the early Fleetwood Mac Peter Green is possibly the only version of recorded Japanese Soul in existence.
George McFall