Michael Kiwanuka, sublimated sadness

He was spotted on the festival's free stage by a certain Claude Nobs, who propelled him onto the prestigious Auditorium Stravinski stage the following day. Ten years later, Michael Kiwanuka became the voice and master of a collective dream on July 6 in the Montreux Jazz Lab, during the soul evening initiated by the excellent Joel Culpepper and Black Pumas. Echoes.

In the end, the Lab's first concert on July 6 in Montreux, an evening of coherent neo-soul, was not performed by Gabriels. Never mind, we're here to discover English R&B singer-songwriter Joel Culpepper, with his distinctive timbre and impressive vocal power. With his star-rimmed glasses and exposed muscles, he's a charming artist who addresses the audience with his dancer's steps and crooner's poses, smooth vocals and high-pitched flights of fancy. There's nothing more infectious than his smile. His ease and his universe set the stage admirably for what's to come.

Black Pumas, a hit

The second concert was given by Black Pumas, a soul-blues-rock band at the height of its fame. It was clear that the audience had come as much for this band as for Michael Kiwanuka. Singer-guitarist Eric Burton, a veritable beast on stage, addresses the audience, his face expressive and his body in motion, like his voice, which oscillates between near-murmurs and breathtaking throws. The arrangements are modern and warm, with a touch of vintage. The overall groove is fantastic, and the audience is quickly won over.

Shortly after the start of the show, he jumps straight into the audience, having just warned them with a wave of his hands to make room for him. In the distance, we look for him moving through the crowd. The effect is successful! Guitarist-producer Adrian Quesada, with whom Eric Burton founded the band in 2017, remains in the background while offering virtuoso solos. The concert goes by at breakneck speed.

Michael Kiwanuka and his backing singers

Then came the most eagerly awaited hour. Not exactly a spectacular entrance for Michael Kiwanuka. His concert contrasts drastically with the other two. While remaining in the soul vein, his universe draws on folk and afrobeat sounds. The Ugandan-born Briton brings a different accent to the stage, as well as a different way of being. Shy, humble and self-effacing: that's the impression he gives, hiding behind his microphone as an intruding performer during his funny intro. And it's not his fellow musicians who will do better in terms of stage presence.

On the other hand, the chorus did! Ah, the chorus girls. The charismatic backup singers, so touching, so bewitching, so enchanting. If this concert had to be dedicated to anyone, it would be to them. From their already central role in the studio versions of the songs, they take off in concert to heavens of improvisation and vocal performance. They will have wrung a tear from the author of these lines, no doubt at the developed end of the stunning Solid Ground, with its deceptive piano (electric)-voice airs, concealing the coming surge in power, further reinforced live.

An enchanting, melancholy dream

But this concert is a whole that cannot be separated from any of its parts. It is experienced like an hour-and-a-half-long dream, with the low-high mix of voices, the instrumental languors constructed like journeys, the chromatic and ghostly transitions that already make the magic of the albums. Michael Kiwanuka excels as a master of collective dreaming, with no need to show off like his stage predecessors. As a result, the audience's attention to the music is heightened.

Everything is polished, but there are three highlights: the rhythm and efficiency with One More Light in the second title played, that of beauty with Light, one of the last singles, placed in the middle of the concert, the disco ball culminating on the stage like a source of light, and the emotional one with a panel of songs towards the end of the show, including Solid Ground, and the aforementioned Cold Little Heart.

The four notes of electric guitar which, in its long version, inhabit the introduction to this great success will have been absent. But they can be found throughout his work. The blues scale, made up of just one and a half extra notes, has that eternal charm of lending itself to all the variations of the same melancholy. But you have to know how to sublimate sadness, as Michael Kiwanuka does.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Header image: Michael Kiwanuka at the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 6, 2022 © Marc Ducrest

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