‘VARIOUS ARTISTS’ – ‘LOVE SUPREME’, GLYNDE PLACE, GLYNDE 30.6.23
Europe’s biggest outdoor jazz festival ‘Love Supreme’ returned to the beautiful countryside setting of Glynde Place in the South Downs from June 30th – July 2nd 2023 for its 10th anniversary. The annual three day Love Supreme Jazz Festival highlights the best of Jazz, Funk, Soul and Blues.
This year’s event included headline shows from Little Simz and Grace Jones. Also on the line-up for the acclaimed three-day festival were UK artists Emeli Sandé, Pip Millett, Greentea Peng and Courtney Pine. Other artists such Candi Staton, Shalamar, Gabriels, Tower Of Power, Jazzmeia Horn, Marcus Miller and Thundercat, to name a few, arrived from different parts of the world adding a global perspective to the festival.
There were too many acts to cover in just one article, so we have split them up in date order. This article refers to artists who were covered only on Friday 30th June. Part 2 on the acts that performed on Saturday 1st July can be found HERE and Part 3 on the acts that performed on Sunday 2nd July HERE.
So here goes, sit back and enjoy…
Friday 30th June:
I arrived in the rain for the first day of the 2023 ‘Love Supreme Festival’ on a packed train of festival goers and many also camping. The weather didn’t seem to dampen their mood and excitement for the festival and music ahead of them.
Either through good planning, having looked at the weather forecast, or good fortune, there were no acts scheduled to appear on the main North Downs Stage on the Friday. This meant almost everybody performing on the first day were in a tent, giving the audience protection from the elements. There were a few hardly souls watching the early artists on the open-air New Generation Jazz stage.
After getting the lie of the land and familiarising myself with the festival site layout, I headed to the shelter of the Supreme Standards tent for my first act of the weekend.
TRISTAN BANKS QUARTET
SUPREME STANDARDS STAGE 4:45pm – 5:30pm
Opening for New Generation Jazz was the Tristan Banks Quartet. This was moved from the open-air New Generation Jazz stage to the Supreme Standards tent. Tristan is a world-class drummer and percussionist. The quartet was completed with a saxophonist, keyboard player and double bassist. For early on the first evening, there was a decent size audience for the Tristan Banks Quartet. Those there were engaged with the music, not just there to get out of the rain. Tristan Banks gave a superb drumming performance. So much so that on one of his solos, the keyboard player filmed it on his mobile phone. Tristan Banks Quartet was a good start to my Love supreme weekend, and judging by the audience’s appreciation a view shared by many other early arrivers at the festival.
SECRET NIGHT GANG
SOUTH DOWNS STAGE 5:30pm – 6:15pm
Next was a quick dash across the festival site in the rain to the South Downs Stage for Manchester jazz-funkers Secret Night Gang, who played a joyful upbeat of jazz-inflected soul. The soulful vocals of Kemani Anderson, with hints of Steve Wonder, went down well with the Friday evening crowd. The congo drums added an extra funky element to Secret Night Gang’s sound. There were two trumpet players alongside saxophonist Callum Connell. Each one played very good solo parts during the set. ‘Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings’ , a slower number in a lively set, was one of the standout songs in their set. Secret Night Gang got a good reception from the audience. When Kemani Anderson asked “Want one more?”, the reply was a big shout of “Yes”.
PIP MILLETT
SOUTH DOWNS STAGE 7:00pm – 8:00pm
UK soul singer-songwriter Pip Millett (real name Georgia Willacywas) was one of my highlights of the whole weekend and brought a certain sassiness to rural East Sussex. The South Downs tent started to fill up long before the start time of her set. On stage Pip was joined by a guitarist, bassist, drummer and keyboard player. Pip gave one of the best vocal performances of the weekend, similar to Joy Crookes and Lauryn Hill of the Fugees at times in her set. There were real feelings and emotions in her singing. Musically Pip was supported by good bass playing and solid drums with the keyboards adding an effective moodier contrast.
Her voice handled both the slow and up-tempo dance numbers equally well. Several people in front of the stage were dancing along to those up-tempo songs. Pip grew into her set. In the earlier part, she walked across the stage singing almost in her own thoughts. A few songs in, she ditched her black jacket and became more animated moving and dancing to her own songs.
As well as her own songs of personal heartfelt experiences, Pip Millet performed noteworthy covers of ‘Could You Be Loved’ by Bob Marley And The Wailers, and ‘Try A Little Tenderness’ by Otis Redding and earlier by Bing Crosby (the latter she released as a single in 2019). As well as material from her debut album ‘When Everything Is Better, I’ll Let You Know’, Pip Millet also played her earlier songs, such as her first release ‘Make Me Cry’.
During the set Pip said hello to her mum and aunt, who were in the audience. (Shout outs to family members was to be a common theme over the weekend. Other artists had family in their band.) After her quality varied performance at Love Supreme, I expect many more of those at Love Supreme on Friday will now be fans of Pip Millet.
GABRIELE PRIBETTI
SUPREME STANDARDS STAGE 8:00pm – 8:45pm
Back at the Supreme Standards stage, Gabriele Pribetti and his band performed a more traditional jazz set, full of improvisation. Gabriele was on saxophone in this quintet and was joined by a trumpeter, bass guitarist, keyboard player and drummer. There was a very percussive approach to Gabriele’s music. There were large spaces in the songs for interplay and free instantaneous composition. Gabriele‘s experimental sound worked well without seeming self-indulgent. This was in large part to the bassist who underpinned the songs, holding the looser parts together.
GABRIELS
SOUTH DOWNS STAGE 8:45pm – 9:55pm
As I got to the South Downs Stage for Gabriels, the stewards were ready with “tent full” signs. Gospel-soul trio Gabriels were the main act on Friday night. Gabriels are an English-American three-piece band consisting of gospel singer Jacob Lusk, keyboardist Ryan Hope and violinist Ari Balouzian. Gabriels came on stage to reggae beats of ’Insane In The Brain’ by Prince Fatty (a dub version of the 1993 Cypress Hill song). Fresh from appearing with Elton John at Glastonbury, Jacob Lusk arrived in a red suit and a massive red overcoat.
Jacob Lusk’s effortless, far-reaching rich vocal range was one of the standout features of the Gabriels set (and across all of Friday’s performances). It reminded me of the soulful crooning of artists such as CeeLo Green. On higher notes there were hints of Prince, while on some slower numbers later in the set old-time crooners like Frank Sinatra. After ditching his massive overcoat, Jacob performed what appeared to be tai chi moves to one song. There wasn’t room in the South Downs tent for the audience to copy those moves, but many were enthusiastically dancing along to Gabriels with their own moves.
As a tribute to Tina Turner, Gabriels performed a beautiful mellow version of ‘Private Dancer’, after which Jacob Lusk simply declared “Tina Turner, we love you”. As well as Jacob’s powerful vocals, a mention needs to be made of the excellent backing singers, who shone, especially taking the lead on ‘Back To Life’ by Soul II Soul. This song took the performance up another level, with even more enthusiastic dancing and singing from the audience. You can’t beat the classic songs.
Sounding like a Baptist minister Jacob welcomed everyone into the Love Supreme Missionary Church announcing: “It’s Friday, and church is usual on Sunday. But this is the Love Supreme Missionary Church. All you need is a little love in your heart.”. There was certainly a lot of love for this set at Love Supreme. Their performance was the main topic of conversation by festival goers on the train home on Friday night, with universal praise.
Friday was a very good start to the Love Supreme weekend. Links to the reviews of Saturday will appear HERE and Sunday HERE.
Love Supreme will be returning to Glynde on Friday 5th to Sunday 7th July 2024. You can find more information HERE.
