Lisa Fischer with Grand Baton
\nDunstan Playhouse
\nAdelaide Cabaret Festival
\nJune 8.<\/p>\n
Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n
The extraordinary Lisa Fischer and her terrific band Grand Baton have returned to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival after a three year absence and, once again, they are a triumph.<\/p>\n
Lisa Fischer\u2019s career is an intriguing one. For thirty years she has been an indispensible, but unheralded, vocalist in The Rolling Stones touring band. In the spotlight for her thrilling solo in Gimme Shelter<\/em> but in the shadows for the rest of the show, she has played to audiences of up to half a million people, most of whom wouldn\u2019t know her name.<\/p>\n Those who have seen Morgan Nevile\u2019s 2014 Oscar winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom<\/em>, about the experiences and tribulations of back-up singers such as Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, and Claudia Lennear, who made significant contributions to recorded music for little more than gig economy reward, will recognise Lisa Fischer as a key contributor not only to the Stones, but Luther Vandross and Sting.<\/p>\n So to see Fischer perform as the major star she undoubtedly is, in the intimate confines of the Dunstan Playhouse is a rare treat. Taking the stage to a warm welcome (led by the many who have seen her before and wouldn\u2019t miss this for quids) she immediately connects, greeting the audience and introducing her New York-based band, Grand Baton, a psychedelic-soul-jazz unit featuring Aidan Carroll on bass, drummer Thierry Arpino and musical director and multi-instrumentalist J.C.Maillard.<\/p>\n Fischer begins humming and vocalising while Arpino lays a catchy percussive rhythm with timpani mallets, joined by Carroll\u2019s deep thrumming bass. The vocal improv starts to form words- \u201cYou\u2019re lights are on, but you\u2019re not home\/ Your mind is not your own\/ Your heart sweats\/ your body shakes\/ Another is what it takes\u2026 \u201d It swaggers but is gathering intensity, Fischer weaves the vocals between two microphones \u2013 one for reverb and echo effects, the other for her soaring multi-octave excursions.<\/p>\n Another verse and she hits the chorus \u201cYou know you\u2019re gonna have to face it, you\u2019re addicted to love<\/em>. As she hits the last phrase J.C. Maillard opens the throttle on his electric guitar, peeling off rich raunchy fuzz chords John Scofield would be pleased to own.<\/p>\n Addicted to Love<\/em>, Robert Palmer\u2019s 1986 signature dance hit, cruises for eight or nine minutes as Fischer, draped in majestic off the shoulder silk draws up her skirts to sashay with the band as they revel in their irresistibly nimble groove.<\/p>\n Also a skilful raconteur, Fischer recalls her grandmother telling her that she was part Cherokee and recently deciding to have a DNA test to identify her ethnic heritage. She was astonished to find Cameroon, Sub-Saharan, Indian, a slice of British but no American. That was the lead-in to a reflection on the fluidity of population and migration. And – \u201cWe come from the land of ice and snow\/From the midnight sun, where the hot springs flow..\u201d Led Zeppelin\u2019s Immigrant Song-<\/em> linked in enticing mash-up with Fragile<\/em> from the Sting album Nothing Like the Sun.<\/em><\/p>\n It unfolds into a splendid sonic raga with Fischer\u2019s keening reverb vocals, the unerring rhythm section and J.C. Maillard, his face a curtain of thin dreadlocks, weaving keyboards, mesmeric oud-like melodies from his custom built SazBass (an eight string elecro-acoustic instrument modelled on the Turkish baglama) as well as multilayered Sufi Qawwali vocals. He is a fascinating musician to watch in action.<\/p>\n A jazzy, spacy reading of another Sting\/Police classic follows \u2013 Message in a Bottle<\/em>, gradually coming into recognition as the band entwine with Fischer\u2019s vocals. She is a marvel of expression and control. Her voice spans from bell-like soprano to sultry contralto. It is said that she has a vocal range from A2 to G6.<\/p>\n Reflecting on her teenage parents (sixteen and seventeen when she was born) and her mother\u2019s tribulations in love, Fischer interprets yet another intriguing contemporary composition \u2013 Blues in the<\/em> Night<\/em> by Katie Melua – with a downbeat melancholy theme of abandonment. \u201cA man is a two-face,\/A worrisome thing who\u2019ll leave to sing\/The blues in the night.\u201d Carroll is now on acoustic bass, Arpino is using brushes and J.C. a melodic acoustic blues guitar.<\/p>\n This unadorned lament then segues into Ane Brun\u2019s setting of Laid in Earth<\/em> from Purcell\u2019s Dido and Aeneas<\/em> highlighting the pellucid operatic quality of Lisa Fischer\u2019s virtuosic soprano. It is a spell-binding experience and it is inexplicable that recordings of these superb live performances have never been released.<\/p>\n Fischer\u2019s versatility is evident yet again with a jazz medley of Heart and Soul<\/em> and the Peggy Lee standard, Fever.<\/em> The band is at its supple best and Fischer moves around the front tables of the audience , working her double mics and serenading some rather bashful \u201csilver foxes\u201d in the matinee crowd. J.C. plays a flawless flamenco solo before switching to another excursion on the SazBass.<\/p>\n It is a splendid close to the set, but luckily there is more. The encore announces itself with those famous lines Lisa Fischer would have heard so many times 20 feet from the spotlight. \u201cI was born in crossfire hurricane\/ And I howled at the maw in the drivin\u2019 rain\/ But it\u2019s all right now, in fact it\u2019s a gas \/ But its all right I\u2019m \u2026 Jumping Jack Flash.\u201d<\/em> The Rolling Stones, Beggar\u2019s Banquet,<\/em> 1968.<\/p>\n Like the re-inventions by Robert Plant and his Shape Shifters, Fischer, J.C. and the others have given this rock classic a Moorish makeover. The Stones rhythms are large as life but Fischer\u2019s vocal inventions and J.C.\u2019s Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan chanting (expertly blended with vocal embellishment from the sound desk) turns a familiar oldie into a dervish-like spin with the music of the spheres. The majestic Lisa Fischer and Grand Baton are a joy to behold and musically out of this world. You\u2019d have to say they\u2019re a gas, gas, gas.<\/p>\n The Barefoot Review, June 10, 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lisa Fischer with Grand Baton Dunstan Playhouse Adelaide Cabaret Festival June 8. Murray Bramwell The extraordinary Lisa Fischer and her terrific band Grand Baton have returned to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival after a three year absence and, once again, they are a triumph. Lisa Fischer\u2019s career is an intriguing one. For thirty years she has been an indispensible, but unheralded, vocalist in The Rolling Stones touring band. In the spotlight for her thrilling solo in Gimme Shelter but in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,5,9,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-39","category-archive","category-cabaret","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3050,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3049\/revisions\/3050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}