First up was multi award winning singer songwriter Zara McFarlane who, resplendent in a carnival green catsuit and wedge platforms, immediately brought a slice of Caribbean sunshine to the stage. This year the festival is celebrating the influence of the Caribbean on UK jazz and Zara charmed us with a story about her two sets of grandparents migrating from the UK from Jamaica as part of the Windrush diaspora. Although both intended to return to the Caribbean, only one set did, she quipped, adding “we have those who chose to stay to thank for me being here tonight!”Her music balanced gorgeous evocative melodies in the foreground with intriguing, complex rhythms underneath, serpentine rhythms that were playful, shifting and seductive. The lyrics too were enticing, though often also spiky and provocative, tackling issues ranging from race and identity to self love and beauty standards. A particular favourite of mine was 'Broken Water', in which Zara snapped the end syllable off each of those title words (creating broke- war-) and looped into a scintillating whirlpool of sound, both flowing and snapping simultaneously. Her voice bent notes blue like whale song, and at times rose to sublime operatic tones in a manner reminiscent of the sassy Sarah Vaughn.
A highlight of the night however was the participation section, for which Zara wisely picked a lyric-less number! She had the whole auditorium singing along to a four line melody with a (once again) complex rhythm which offered space for her to add some feisty stomps in the final sing through. She had us all feeling like jazz pros!Her cover of 'Police and Thieves' was an immediate crowd pleaser while her closing track, 'Future Echoes', was a sublime love letter to human connection. The line ‘I want to bathe in the clouds with you’ soared through the air like a carnival streamer.Next up was the incomparable soul legend that is Omar Lye-Fook MBE. Igniting the stage in vivid red and orange, with sunglasses dangling coolly from his hips, he wasted no time in showing us why he has a career which has successfully spanned four decades and has included collaborations with Stevie Wonder, Common and Courtney Pine.Billed as blurring the lines between jazz, reggae, nu-soul and soul, my abiding impression of his gala night set list was pure funk! A heavy, slapping bass, hot stabs on the trumpet and saxophone, and a treacly back beat on the drums soon turned the Palace into an after hours groove joint (perhaps for the first time in its history!).'Everybody Loves The Sunshine' swiftly brought everybody to their feet, and with a little encouragement from Omar it was soon clear the Watford crowd were ready to party! He had us singing along to that famous repetitive refrain, praised us for stopping at the right moment, and when it looked like we might be about to sit down he called us out: “Who told you to sit down? I know you paid for a seat but it doesn’t mean you have to use it!”From then on we were all on our feet, dancing along to his eternal classic There's Nothing Like This and whooping as he assured us that playing Watford is better than London. It was an old school house party atmosphere and when his final number ‘F**k War Make Love’ dropped, the band exploded into characterful solos and we knew we’d witnessed something very special indeed. A night for the jazz history books, and a stupendous opening for this year’s highly anticipated Watford Jazz Junction Festival.
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