Three of Sunfest’s most anticipated imports kept the solar power plugged in over the supper hour Saturday at Victoria Park.
As Day 3 of TD Sunfest 2011 drew bigger and bigger crowds to the park, New Zealand’s Moana & The Tribe, the Netherlands’ Saskia Laroo and Chicago’s Hypnotic Brass Ensemble proved it's not hype if you really are that good.
The Hypnotic Brass are really a band of brothers. All its members are sons of Chicago jazzman Phil Cohran.
“Let’s give it up for Phil,” a band member said to cheers as the band went into a beautiful ballad.
The brothers all sway as they play, even the one wrapped up in the huge sousaphone.
The ensemble was hypnotizing a Sunfest crowd for the second time on Saturday as it commanded the WestJet North Stage about 8 p.m. with its mix of old and new, past and future.
The New Zealand band also celebrated the past with music that is about right now.
“We’d like to pay tribute to the First Nations (peoples) in the area,” Moana told the bandshell crowd. The performance had traditional aboriginal sounds and dancers, but also a funky band that finished with a touch of arena rock after the huge-voiced Moana had left the stage.
Her band was the most traditional act from N.Z. to reach London audiences in recent weeks. Like other Kiwi performers such as the Topp Twins, whose documentary biopic was just here, Moana’s music has a strong social and political comment.
“This is a song that’s (dedicated) to the people of East Timor,” she said later in the set, reaching out the strife-torn country near Indonesia.
Laroo’s jazz and funk band had a message too — jazz is party music and its heroes are icons to be invoked to get that party started.
“I love the multi-cultural references,” American-born, Cuban-based Pablo Menendez told Laroo, as a fellow Sunfest performer, after the show.
Menendez was talking in part about the band’s diversity.
Its members trace their roots to such places as the Netherlands, Ghana, Senegal, Macedonia, the Caribbean and the U.S.
Laroo is a trumpet player and vocalist in a front line with two female MCs.
The only time the trumpet, hip-hop and jazz blend misfired was when Laroo tried some effects that never connected and loops that were losers.
After a few minutes of noise and silence and frustration, Laroo decided to go another way.
“Forget it. Let’s do natural trumpet. Organic trumpet,” she said. Worked like a charm as she played lovely trumpet to the crowd. Hey, there’s a message in that, right?
Laroo took her trumpet out to the crowd early in the set. It was striking, but stirred few.
At the finale, not too long after she chose the “organic trumpet” route, the fans were up and she was surrounded by happy dancers under the beautiful trees near the Holy Roller tank. So the 17th edition of Sunfest had its party band.
When Moana left the bandshell stage a little earlier, she had come up with Saturday’s Sunfest slogan. “Have an awesome festival. See you tomorrow.”
