Review: Laraque & Co @ Christopher's

It could so easily have turned out to be 'another night', that is to say a night
like many previously, where one hears competent musicians just going through
material already long familiar to the audience who would go abouttheir regular occupations of drinking and chatting
But there was, on Tuesday last, a different kind of energy to Christopher's Jazz cafe as reedman Nicholas Laraque took the stage alongside Ozoune on piano/keys, Nisan on drums and Shurwayne on bass. In fact, Laraque himself repped on several instruments, all of them reeds: he played soprano alto and tenor saxohpone (the latter not seen by this writer in any of his previous appearances) and for good measure, he also starred on flute.
This new energy extendedto the jazz-funk and post-bop standards (Mercy, Mercy and So What among others) and pop classics that the band delivered with effortless vigor.
But the real kicker came late in the session, in the closing moments of the final set, when Laraque brought on two guests: tenorists Tafane (possessed of a robust tone) and trumpeter Craig. The expanded band delivered rollicking impressions of ska classics, bringing the figurative curtains down on 'another' Tuesday night live music episode that will at least stand out on its own merits.

The next session features the return of Seretse & the True Democrats, just before they return to Guyana for a folk-jazz engagement in Georgetown, a repeat of a gig they played earlier this year.