C7's and Bang Tail Feather

Yesterday evening, I was back home in Bicester watching my younger brother's band, The C7's, perform at one of their first big gigs. They were supporting Band Tail Feather who are an already established local Jazz band. The C7's are a quartet consisting of piano (Dan Crook), Bass, Drums and Sax. The band write their own music and, even without considering their age, were absolutely brilliant. And I'm not just saying that because they are my brother's band! The band were dead tight, very imaginative and were very talented as a group and as individuals. Each one of them stood out and every part was essential to the sound, none of it was obsolete. Last night made me think back to when Dan first got the band together and how they very quickly clicked as a group and started writing to killer jazz tracks. Of course, being the older brother, I never mentioned this to Dan, but I found it impossible not to be impressed listening to them practice all those years ago. And to see them live really brought out the talent and hard work that all of them had put into their music.

Material
As Bang Tail Feathers are a cover band, I can't really say very much about their material because they don't write their own. So I'm going to look at The C7's material and what it is about them that makes them so good. Most of the songs they played last night were lead by the piano. I love listening to Dan play because he has a very particular style of playing that I rarely hear anywhere else. It's kind of a mix between blues, jazz and fusion with plenty of swing thrown into the mix. For as long as I can remember, Dan has loved to play the piano and particularly jazz, and he has always loved to swing, even if he's not aware of it almost everything he writes is very heavily swung. This is going to sound odd but that is Dan's personality coming out through his music. To me, Dan's is one of those people who just plays what they feel, what they think is cool. He's never written for a particular audience, he just writes what he feels which is very refreshing.

Performance

So that's where, I think, the inspiration for the music comes from. But what about the rest of the band? The music wouldn't be anywhere near as good with out the bass, drums and fantastic lead lines from the sax. Unfortunately for Lewis (the bass player) the stage was poorly lit, and he was stood in the darkest part of the stage making it quite difficult for us to see him, but that certainly didn't stop us hearing him! He had some really cool bass lines which really filled the gaps between the drums and the piano and laid a great foundation for the Sax. He walked freely around the bass making some really interesting bass lines that suited the songs perfectly. Considering Lewis is a self taught bassist, he had a great understanding of music and dynamics and performed very well.

Gemma, the Sax player, played really well. She had lots of lead lines that worked nicely with what Dan was playing on the piano. Her sax sound was clear and had a really nice tone. Gemma improvised really well and Dan had obviously written his music with lead lines in mind for the Sax. She has an excellent understanding of music and a really good understanding of how their style works.

The C7's regular drummer James, who I happen to know is a really good drummer, was unavailable to play at the show last night. Instead the band had Jesse fill in for them. I've known Jesse for a number of years and he easily one of, if not the best drummer I know and I always learn from listening to him play. I met Jesse whist playing in a youth Jazz band in Oxford and in Kidlington. I always loved listening to him play Jazz because he would put a fantastic grove onto everything we played with lots of exciting and clever fills as well as some really tasty hi-hat work. Last night was no exception to this, Jesse was tight and very musically aware. Considering he said he didn't know the set very well he played beats and groves that suited the music brilliantly. I imagine that James has gone through he songs with him before as he played fairly similar stuff to what I've her James play, but it was none the less a very impressive performance.

Best of Luck

The performance from both bands was fantastic, and nobody should ever underestimate the difficultly of being able to play covers well so I give all credit to Band Tail Feather. However I have never been more proud to be Dan's brother than when I saw him get on that stage and play like he did. I would also encourage him to sing more, as last night was the first time I'd ever really herd him sing and he was fantastic. The C7's as a whole put on a remarkable performance and I genuinely they continue to play together and produce more material. I would also like to add that these guys are all only 16-18 years old, I think we can expect many more great things to come from these musicians.