Dunstan Playhouse<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opening his Back to Basics tour in Adelaide, alone at the piano, UK singer-songwriter Benjamin Clementine is every bit as intriguing and gifted as his recordings indicate .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Written by Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If, last Thursday night, you were at the ENT Centre getting a blast from Hans Zimmer, or enjoying Paul Lewis playing Mozart at the Town Hall, then you missed out on an extraordinary performance at the Dunstan Playhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Benjamin Clementine\u2019s legend precedes him. Born in the UK, the youngest of five children to parents of Ghanaian heritage. Taught himself piano listening to French Impressionists on BBC radio. Down and Out in London and Paris from his mid-teens. Busking and living rough until, having become a fixture in the Parisian music subculture, he is noticed by an agent and, at 24, his career is launched on all cylinders. Festival de Cannes, recording contracts, Montreux Festivals, appearances on Jools Holland, praise from Paul McCartney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eclectic is an understatement. Mr Clementine contains multitudes . He is not derivative, or a mimic in either voice or piano – but rather echoes and resonates sounds, styles, and performances into an amalgam that is his alone. It is musical alchemy at its most appealing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has recorded three albums. At Least For Now<\/em> debuted in 2015, winning the coveted Mercury Music prize in the same year. I Tell a Fly<\/em> followed in 2017 and, five years on, And I Have Been<\/em> released in 2022. It has been a discontinuous narrative, however, interrupted by contract tangles, record release delays, and ongoing complications in his private life – including his divorce from his wife, Flo Morrissey, and estrangement from his three children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back to Basics seems almost existentially true, and Clementine\u2019s return to touring has a fragility about it that counterpoints the extraordinary emotional heft and vigour of his performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Dunstan stage is all in white, as is the waiting grand piano. Clementine enters in his signature style. Barefoot, in a black trench coat (he has a promotion contract with Burberry). With his tangled mane of hair, and dark glasses, he is a formidable figure. He also has a reticence and other-worldliness that is not affectation. Rather like Thelonious Monk, it is his way of commanding space and steering the complicated tempo of his invention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pausing with his head lowered, he moves his right hand horizontally above the keyboard like a wand, while his left hand gradually begins a flurry of notes – then joined by the descending chords from the right. And begins -\u201cI swear that you have seen me \/ Yes you have seen me \/\u2026 don\u2019t tell it otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is \u201cCondolence\u201d from the first album. His rich voice with that Nina Simone vibrato so often noted of his singing. The song is intensely personal- confessional and vulnerable. \u201cI\u2019m sending my condolence to fear \/I\u2019m sending my condolence to insecurities. \u201cThis is old territory for him .<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI had done it all before \/And I won.\u201d \u201cOut of absolutely nothing, I , Benjamin was born \/So that when I become someone one day\/ I will always remember that I came from nothing.\u201d Back to basics indeed . And the emotional extravagance is matched (and therefore contextualised stylistically) with his soaring, emphatic, operatic delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am alone in a box of stone\u201d. \u201cCornerstone\u201d is next . The rolling piano reminiscent of Michael Nyman, punctuated by his clipped lyrics -rising to the plaintive, almost strained \u201cI\u2019ve been lonely, alone in a box of stone \u201c then segues to \u201cthis is the place I now belong \u2013 it\u2019s my home, home, home etc\u201d repeated in a chant that merges \u201chome\u201d with \u201chope\u201d as the piano moves between roiling R\u2019n\u2019B and Keith Jarrett repetitions. It is vocally and musically audacious, but also direct and immediate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sunglasses now off, Clementine\u2019s piano intro for \u201cLondon\u201d is as melodically irresistible as a Jimmy Webb ballad. He is now in full vocal stride, launching effortlessly into the soaring chorus \u2013 \u201cLondon London London is calling\/ What are you waiting for ? What are you searching for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also from the At Least For Now<\/em> debut album, is \u201cAdios\u201d. From the impatient piano opening to the swaggering, interrogative vocal, Clementine is reminding us that Jacques Brel is alive and well and living in Paris. It is a brilliant use of the chanson idiom \u2013 as another comparison, Scott Walker, also so astutely demonstrated. But not even he has the startling vocal temerity of Clementine\u2019s \u201cThat decision is mine\/Cause that vision is mine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, highlight of many highlights, \u201cAdios\u201d breaks mid-song with Clementine, in his shy, barely-audible speaking voice, telling us that he is (sort of) visited by angels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnyways they come to me , they sing so beautifully . If I can recall their melodies, it goes – excuse me to take your time – but its goes something, something like this.: \u201c He then embarks on a falsetto aria like something out of Lakme<\/em> descending into his velvet (I am informed) spinto<\/em> tenor range before returning to the rest of the song. Excuse me for taking your time ? Wow. Understandably, the audience went nuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This encourages Clementine to engage directly with the crowd. Moving to a new untitled song he again waves his hand-wand over the keyboard and begins to talk about his fear of separation- before beginning a prose monologue sung in recitative that Sondheim would be proud of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is a lengthy and vivid account of his own separation from his children. It is only his side of the story and our position on it is unclear but it leads into one his concert singalongs \u2013 the line: \u201cNothing is final. Everything gonna be fine\u201d. The audience obliges tentatively until we discover we have to sing twenty repetitions, turning the lines into a mantra sung with increasing gusto and conviction until he lets us off at number 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After an electrifying rendition of \u201cNemesis\u201d concluding with a thunderous piano finale and sustained operatic note to match, Clementine leaves the stage leaving us wondering if he\u2019s had enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On return he delivers a terrific version of \u201cAtonement\u201d \u2013 the only song from his most recent 2022 album, And I Have Been<\/em>. It is followed by another dexterously sung prose monologue \u201cNicholas Nepolitana\u201d(sic) \u2013 also, so far unrecorded, and on the theme of marital breakdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The warmth of the response and maybe the intimacy of the Dunstan theatre encourages the singer to have more chat with the audience. He had already \u2013 noting a procession of walk-outs \u2013 improvised a tune along the lines of \u201cgo to the bathroom\/ if you\/ want to\/use the loo\u201d much to our surprise and general amusement given the heavy themes of much of the repertoire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clementine notes he\u2019s never spent 24 hours on a plane before and, having long ago read Bruce Chatwin\u2019s Timelines<\/em>, he wanted to go to Alice Springs. The audience schools him on the spelling and pronunciation of Uluru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He concludes the ninety minute set with a lovely reading of \u201cJupiter\u201d (also the name of his son) mashed up with \u201cYoung Winston Churchill\u201d (again from the first album). Clementine of the multitudes, is singing the Song of Himself \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBen is an alien with extra ability \/<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pushed time to next century\/ \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ben is an alien passing by ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wishing everybody be\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back home in Jupiter, things are getting harder\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wishing every ease \u2026 \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n And adds with genial whimsy , \u201ceven in Adelaide.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Ben is an alien welcome any time. And he definitely has extra ability. His set barely touched the range of his virtuosic repertoire. He evokes many, but he is one of a kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Benjamin Clementine played one night at the Dunstan Theatre on October 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n