Crowd Company - The 100 Club

Chris Rand

Crowd Company

Rob Fleming - vocals and guitar

Emil Engstrom - bass
Robin Lowrey - drums
Claudio Corona - keys
Chris Rand - saxophone
Henry Spencer - trumpet
Esther Dee - vocals
Jo Marshall - vocals

Robin Lowrey

Date: 18th May 2018
Venue: The 100 Club, London, UK
Current album: Stone and Sky (Vintage League Music 2017)

Rob Fleming

Future:
June 9th 2018 - 229, London
June 28th 2018 -  Saint James Festival, London
June 29th 2018 - Aint Nothin But the Blues, London
June 30th 2018 - The Donkey - Leicester
July 12th 2018 - Pizza Express Jazz Club (Soho), London
July 17th 2018 - The 100 Club, London

Emil Engstrom

An 8-piece modern take on vintage soul funk. Brimming with energy and a raw edge, catchy hooks, and tight grooves. The band combines a retro Hammond organ-based sound with a virtuoso horn section, soulful lead, and harmony vocals.

The band evokes the spirit of 60s and early 70s funk as well as modern day funk jam bands whilst also focusing on strong soulful songwriting.

Esther Dee

Crowd Company are renowned for dynamic, engaging live performances. The band have drawn accolades from their musical peers and have shared the stage with the likes of George Porter Jr from The Meters, Daptone’s Saun & Starr, Alan Evans Trio, The New Mastersounds, Monophonics

Crowd Company release their new album ‘Stone & Sky’ on the Vintage Lague label worldwide in September 2017 on vinyl, CD, online. The album was recorded at IronWax Studio, MA and was produced by Alan Evans (Soulive).

Claudio Corona

The band have had rave reviews from the music press for ‘Stone & Sky’ . 

“A delicious album. a must listen. exceptional” – The Huffington post (USA)
“An absolute gem **** 4/5 stars” – Blues & Soul (UK) “At the forefront of British funk **** 4/5 stars” – Music news (UK)
“Devastating grooves **** 4/5 stars” – Music culture (France)
“Funk & Soul done right ****4//5 stars” – Soul Spain (Spain)
“Infectious grooves” glide magazine` (USA) “
“we strongly recommend this album to all funk fans!” Sound & Image (Germany)

***Named by AXS in the: “Top 10 Best Funk&Soul Albuns of 2017”***

Henry Spencer

A busy gigging, band Crowd Company regularly play some of the UK’s prestigious venues including: The 100 Club, The Jazz Café, Brooklyn Bowl, 229, RichMix, Band On The Wall, Concorde 2, Pizza Express Jazz Club.

Jo Marshall

Nomad Soul Collective - Anthemic glows

Henry Spencer - Trumpet



Although moved from the Southbank's Front Room into their into their not unsubstantial back parlour, the Nomad Soul Collective made the most of their wandering credentials to take up residence in the Clore Ballroom last week (23/01/2015).

Henry Lawry - Piano/Vocals

 It is one of London's great public spaces, filled with a mixture of music lovers, end-of-week johnnies, captivated toddlers and an ever rotating carousel of bodies escaping either the inclement weather or meeting new friends. The swell and heave of the crowd  reminded us of Nomad Soul Collective's Murmuration, the tune which propelled them to viral success. Tonight it was but one composition amongst eleven original tunes.



Jamie Beaumont - Bass

Alongside the regular NSC cast list of Emmett Glynn (guitar/vocals), Henry Lawry (piano/vocals), Jamie Beaumont (bass), Kiran Bhatt (drums) and Samuel Eagles (saxophone) was a bolstered brass section that included both Henry Spencer (trumpet) and Tom White (trombone).


Emmett Glynn -
guitar/vocals

One of the constant themes in the Nomad Soul Collective's portfolio is the balance between a Human's influence and Nature. Their pace has an organic ebb which unfurls like a awakening fern, leaving the mind to wander at its leisure, yet the instrumentation possesses a modernity that anchors you in the Now.




Samuel Eagles -
Saxophone

Origins is one of many tunes starting with the air of a lazy day, perhaps in a city park. A stretch of grass that catches you in its green while all about you is hot yellows and angry blues. Samuel Eagles' saxophone turns up the thermostat while bodies bubble and buzz. This is a people tune, a pulse, a force, it is for people who attract people. This magnetism was obviously working in the Clore Ballroom as the audience swelled.

Lucinda John-Duarte

Forever brought Lucinda John-Duarte to the stage for this evolving tune, its petals and leaves continually opening in invitation. An understated honesty pervaded the majority of NSC's performance and this was no exception. Excuse my sparse realisation of the Holy Milk's singer but she lasted for but this one moment, and not for longer as the song suggested.

Kiran Bhatt - drums

Into the Ocean was not the kind of tune you dive into, if anything, it helps you glide above the inviting water. This is music for the third eye in all of us, the third person perhaps, the aid that helps us to look at ourselves from a higher vantage point. It was emphasised frequently but particularly on this tune by Henry Lawry's scudding piano.

Tom White - Trombone

On the whole the Nomad Soul Collective puffed us up with optimism, especially the aforementioned Murmuration, with guitar and bass which ruled like gods whilst the brass literally and metaphorically added the gilt, the anthemic glow that bathed us in gold. In contrast Solstice let a discordant wind cut through the Ballroom's doors. It spoke of uninviting paths, undecided days and a half-finished, half-eaten malaise. As the trumpet of Henry Spencer looked into the stage lights, the weak shadow from his fingers played across his own face. You couldn't help but think of the shapes made by naked branches as they dance in the low horizon sun.

AL.

Face in the crowd -
Steve Marchant