Clive Rowe: Nothing Like A Dame

Clive Rowe is the consummate pantomime dame. Oh yes he is! Described by The Guardian as "one of the greatest ", the Lancashire-born thesp has become a Hackney institution. In the seven years he's been playing here, Rowe has cultivated a loyal local following who turn out in force each Christmas to see him camp up his dramatic chops. Last year it was in Duke Whittington; this year Rowe stars as the lead in the Empire’s production of Mother Goose. It’s the tenth anniversary celebration of panto at the Empire and is a comic caper of epic proportions. Written by Susie McKenna, who’s been responsible for a number of the Empire’s Christmas hits, the show incorporates high-jinks and high drama to charming effect with Rowe the shining star in a stellar cast. He explains: “Mother Goose is about what happens if somebody is given what they believe they want, what happens to them when they get it and how they deal with it. It is what it says on the tin, a family panto.”

Rowe is an accomplished actor whose dedication to panto has brought credibility to the genre. He’s appeared in some of theatre’s best loved productions, including Carousel and Guys and Dolls, for which he won a coveted Olivier Award. “To have your peers that are people that you respect, who are above you and have been doing it for longer than you look at you and say, “we think what you’ve done is amazing”, is an amazing accolade”, he says.

It’s not just the theatrical establishment who've taken Rowe to their hearts - Hackney has too. I suggest it must be his Northern charm. “Init!” he jokes in a sketchy east London accent. “One of the things I’ve always felt about theatre, but is even more true with the Hackney Empire, is the show starts the minute you walk through the front door, not the minute you sit down in the auditorium and the lights go on. The minute you’re received here you’re part of the panto and everybody is working towards a fantastic night”.

Rowe has appeared in television, film and on radio but says he feels comfortable on the Hackney stage. Panto for him is as much a craft as any other kind of acting. “There’s a difficult balance to get where you’re keeping everything panto level because you’re playing to the five year olds but real. The trick is finding that core of it where you may be upset about something but you’re not doing Greek tragedy, you’re not doing Chekov, it’s panto”.

And Rowe loves it. “My thing is I have a great time. I spend all year being told what I can’t do on stage and I get five weeks to do what I want to do. The fact is I’m having a good time.” And so are we.

Mother Goose is on at the Hackney Empire until 10 January 2009.

Robert Glasper: Live at Cargo

Doo-rags, hoodies and baseball caps aren’t the usual attire of jazz aficionados but Robert Glasper’s crowd is as notable for its youth as its urban fashion sense. He, himself, is dressed like one of his tribe – oversized T-shirt, baggy jeans and obligatory glass of liquor in hand. “Don’t let this jazz thing fool you,” he jokes mid-gig as he threatens to break in to a rap after seizing the mic from guest MC, Kashmere. And it wouldn’t have been out of place if he had. For Glasper, it seems hip hop is as intrinsic to his being as his first love, jazz. The fact that his show is taking place in a smoke-filled nightclub rather than a venerable jazz venue is testament to his street cred. His warm-up act isn’t some young pretender polishing his bebop chops but a DJ whose vinyl cases are crammed with Soul and Old Skool Hip-Hop. It could so easily be a cliché if Glasper wasn’t the real deal.

Website: www.myspace.com/therealrobertglasper

Catching Up With the King of Shoes, Jimmy Choo

Hackney can claim many famous fashion alumni but none are as synonymous with style as shoemaker to the stars Jimmy Choo. A-listers from the worlds of film, music and the arts all flock to Choo’s swanky Central London boutique to get their mitts on his unique handmade shoes for everything from glitzy parties to glittering premieres. But when Jimmy Choo arrived in London in the 1980’s he couldn’t have known how important a role the bustling creative Hackney would play in his life. The borough gave the Malaysian his start in the fashion world, which would see him go from a struggling student to a multimillionaire.

As an apprentice at the prestigious Cordwainers’ Fashion Technical College, Choo perfected his craft as a shoemaker, his family trade, while working part-time at restaurants and as a cleaner at a shoe factory to help fund his education. “During the eighties I was in London for a holiday and a friend of mine told me there’s a special shoe college in Hackney called Cordwainers’”, Choo recalls. “Although I had training from my father, it’s always good to have an education and I didn’t have a certificate. So I enrolled in the college to learn more and get more advanced.”

At the time, as is today, Hackney was a hub of offbeat creative talent. The artistic energy that buzzed through the borough’s streets inspired Jimmy to stay local and in 1986, after leaving Cordwainers’, he opened his first workshop, renting an old hospital building. “Hackney was a fantastic place, very peaceful and very relaxed in those days,” Choo says, nostalgically. “All types of designers and artists were in Hackney, and a lot of music stars as well. There was also a lot of factories and manufacturing, especially shoe manufacturing. It was a great place.”

Jimmy’s craftsmanship and designs were soon noticed by those in the know in the industry and it didn’t take long before Jimmy Choo shoes became the must-have brand for serious fashionistas. Patronage from celebrities and royalty, including Diana, Princess of Wales, led Jimmy to become an international fashion icon and in 1998 his success was crowned when he scored an incredible coup when his creations were featured in a record eight pages of Vogue magazine. In 2000 Jimmy was awarded the Malaysian equivalent of a Queen’s honour for his achievements and two years later he received an OBE from the Queen herself in recognition of his services to the shoe and fashion industry in the UK.

But even though he’s mingled with the world’s top names and continues to ply his stylish trade Jimmy’s love and respect for his Hackney roots remains as strong as ever. “Hackney is a multicultural place. You have the Chinese, people from Jamaica, Ireland, Holland, all sorts of people who love to be in Hackney. I get my inspiration from that because it’s very important that I love what I’m doing and I mix with people and get an idea of how they dress. It’s fantastic. Hackney is a special place.”

Still Black, Still Proud: An African Tribute to James Brown

The Barbican was the setting for a thrilling night of funk and frolics as legendary saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis led an all-star tribute to his long time collaborator, James Brown, at Still Black, Still Proud: An African Tribute to James Brown.

Proving that good music never dies, celebrated musicians including Senegalese guitarist Cheikh Lo, Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen and Vieux Farka Toure joined trombonist Fred Wesley and others to salute the Godfather of Soul. And what a night it was!

Interspersing traditional African music with Brown’s extensive back catalogue, the band - accompanied by singer Fred Ross, vocalist and dancer Wunmi and UK rapper Ty - put in a pulsating performance that had the audience dancing in the aisles, bringing the house down with interpretations of classics like I Got You (I Feel Good) and Say It Loud: I’m Black and Proud. But it was Cheikh Lo’s (above) hauntingly beautiful rendition of It’s A Man’s World that was the highlight, combining awesome musicianship with Brown’s signature showmanship. South African songstress Simphiwe Dana’s bluesy homage was also a revelation.

With each band member a star in their own right, Still Black, Still Proud was an awe-inspiring evening that’s testament not only to Brown’s indisputable legacy but also to the rich vein of African musical talent. It may be nearly two years since he passed away but the spirit of James Brown truly lived on in this wonderfully captivating show.

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Still Black, Still Proud took place on Saturday, 14th June as part of the Barbican's Groove Nations Season.

Fire in the dark: Mos Def live

Dante Smith, the brilliant rapper that is Mos Def was in town last week to showcase some tracks from his forthcoming album The Ecstatic and run through a selection of his greatest hits. Playing two sold-out shows at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire and Islington Academy, Mos worked his knowledgeable crowd in to a frenzy with classic cuts like Umi Says, Ms Fat Booty and Sex, Love and Money. Despite coming on stage at approx. 10.30pm on a Sunday night, Mos gave a solid performance in front of an audience that was clearly in awe of the talented Brooklynite. After the poorly-received The New Danger and True Magic Mos appears to have returned to form as one of the finest and most credible MCs in the game. Support was ably provided by London's own Pyrelli and Swedish-American hip-hop group OneSelf.

On another note, today I had the pleasure of interviewing an unusual rising star in the shape of British saxophonist YolanDa Brown. Brown is different because not only is she a black female instrumentalist in a male-dominated genre but she's also highly-educated. The 25 year old musician is studying for a PhD as well as regularly performing on the tour circuit and working on her debut album. Check out http://www.sylviaarthur.co.uk/ for more info on this woman to watch.

Until next week...

Lessons in transcendence: Rahsaan takes it to another level

Picture the scene: It's 9.30pm on a mild October Wednesday. A hardcore contingent of soul music aficionados are gearing up for a short but satisfying gig from one of the genre's most gifted artists. By 11 o'clock it'll all be over and we'll go our separate ways, content until we meet again. Job done. Now for what really happened. Enter the world of Rahsaan Patterson:

In Rahsaan's world there are no worries about getting up for work in the morning or how to make the long journey home when the underground shuts down. No. In Rahsaan's world, where he is the Pied Piper and we are his followers, time stands still as he guides us through his outstanding collection of finely-crafted material, from his eponymous 1997 debut through to Wines and Spirits, his latest offering. Locked in transcendence for two-and-a-half hours of pure musical ecstasy, Patterson's rapt audience are consumed by the sheer force of his talent. If heaven were a sonic construct this would be it.

Patterson's voice is the central tool in a superior six-piece band that features two fine backing singers and a keyboardist who's notable, not as the lone white guy in the ensemble, but as a brilliant multi-instrumentalist. With undertones of Prince that speak of admiration not imitation, Patterson is an exceptional vocalist who epitomises soul. He simultaneously provides a lesson in artistry for wannabes while raising the bar for his peers.

At a time when it's the norm for artists to race through a set with little regard for their audience, Patterson is an utterly unselfish performer who clearly sees his role as paying his dues to his loyal fan base. And we were certainly repaid in full. Extended renditions of Sure Boy, Don't Run So Fast and the Van Hunt After Hours collaboration The Best were particular peaks in an evening full of highs. This is a man at the top of his game. There's Rahsaan Patterson, then there's everyone else.

At the end of the night I was disappointed to be leaving the Jazz Café. Forced back out in to the real world, the problem of getting home and being at work in just a few hours brought me back down to earth with a thud.

But I, like the rest of the crowd knew that for a time we were in the presence of greatness, treated to a very special show from a consummate artist who's truly out of this world. I can't wait for Rahsaan to return. "Earth to Planet Patterson... Beam me up Scotty!"

Wines and Spirits is out now on Dome Records.

Review: Joe Guy is the man!

OK, I admit it. I was apprehensive about seeing Joe Guy, the new Roy Williams play currently in residence at the Soho Theatre. "Yet another production exploring the historically difficult relationship between Africans and Caribbeans, yet another vehicle for exposing our ignorance in public," I thought. Blah de blah, blah! And it’s themed around football to boot. Not my idea of a great night out. How wrong could I be.

This is not a play about football. Nor is it a clichéd or gratuitous attempt to cash in on the neuroses of black Britons. Rather, Joe Guy is an intensely engaging story of a young man wanting desperately to fit in to a society at odds with, and occasionally hostile to his culture and skin colour.

Joe Boateng is a successful Premiership footballer who arrives in the UK as a twelve-year-old from Ghana. Displaying a talent for hard work and the beautiful game doesn’t insulate him from schoolyard taunts about the thickness of his accent or the darkness of his skin. So taking solace from the adage that success is the best revenge he sets his mind to making it big as a way of getting back at the bullies.

The epicentre of the play is crystallised in a stirring and impassioned monologue which sees Joe transform himself from a harassed, awkward-speaking teenager in to a streetwise, slang-talking man. This marks a turning point in Joe’s evolution to wild egocentric, which ultimately sees him charged with rape.

The beauty of Joe Guy is in the detail. The dialogue is sharp and witty, delivered by a group of wholly identifiable characters that could have been drawn from any school or street in London. A stellar ensemble performance from an energetic cast makes it almost churlish to single out individuals. However, Abdul Salis in the lead role of Joe Boateng is a revelation and Mo Sesay, whose turns as a dim-witted bodyguard, an aging footballer and Joe’s curmudgeonly father are all equally utterly convincing. This combined with the fast-paced direction and simple but effective set makes Joe Guy an action-packed hour and a half of intelligent and compelling self-examination.

My one criticism of an otherwise excellent production is that some scenes were overly long, with a tendency to labour an already emphasised point. But this is just being finicky.

Williams’ unique powers of observation are evident through the crisp clear way in which he translates an otherwise overplayed subject in to a captivating cultural narrative of our times. All in all, Williams manages to encapsulate the complexity of a vexed and taboo topic without either trivialising or romanticising the

2007 has been a relatively good year for black British theatre but this is by far the best production I’ve seen all year. You have until 24th November to judge for yourselves. You have been warned. 4½ / 5.

Joe Guy is on at the Soho Theatre until 24th November. Book online or for more info, visit http://www.tiatafahodzi.com/.