This was a lucky find having noticed on Facebook that George Frakes was appealing for an Amp to borrow for his gig at Powers Bar in about three hours time.
I asked George who he was playing with and having seen the video of Jess Roberts singing Koko Taylor's Voodoo Woman (and discovered she used to be in The Memory Band) decided to go and eat at Ciao Ciao's oh so not dodgy pasta cafe next door to Powers and to finally go to see something at the closest music venue to home. Yes, it's even closer that the Luminaire used to be or the Good Ship.
I don't know why it's taken me so long as I have spent so much of my life in venues run by Vince "Mean Fiddler" Power, so I should have gone into this one a long time before now, say for the not sold out secret Gang of Four show that I knew about in time and still didn't go to!
Anyway we sat in a very empty but cool bar listening to the Soul and Funk playing and then on came THE JESS ROBERTS BAND. They feature the talents of George Frakes on guitar along with a guy playing a very cool looking Hohner bass, a drummer and a backing singer as well as Jess singing and ,blimey, how are they only playing to 20 to 30 people on a Friday night is almost beyond my comprehension. This place should be packed out as Jess has an incredible powerful voice, so full of emotion and her backing singer almost has a voice that is even more powerful. Damn, they used the combined voices brilliantly.
Not sure of exactly what they sang but the first set included their brilliant cover of Koko Taylor's Voodoo Woman. It was well up with how The Queen of the Blues sang it the only time I saw her sing at the Blues Festival in Chicago many years ago. Damn she's got some sass and the sort of delivery that is perfect when coupled with George's great playing made it sound incredible. They also played Blue Afternoon. It had enough vocal interplay between Jess and her backing singer that made me want to hear them tackling Betty Davis''Your Man My Man' as I think they could really do justice to it.
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They had a break and came back for a second set that actually allowed the numbers in Powers to creep above 30 (just about). They started the second set with an instrumental vamp that allowed George and his band mates a chance to warm back up and I think in the second set they did their song Frustration that seems to be about love not quite going right. Whatever, it is a damn fine song and had a great guitar solo in it.
The second set was short but, damn, they are a band with a lot of promise. I want the single they have out and look forward to them having an album out soon and some properly promoted shows so they can get the size of audience they deserve.
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