Live Review

Carvin Jones Band

at Beards Blues, Tooting, London SW17 15/2/06

There are gigs and there are special gigs and then there are Carvin Jones gigs! Never in the history of Rock Blues has there been a Carvin Jones. Yes of course there is the ghost of Hendrix, and there have been any number of showmen, guitar wiz kids, charismatic guitar playing front men and all manner of artists born for the stage, but none I would venture combine so many unlimited facets as Carvin Jones. In fact I’ll go further. No performer has excited crowds in the way Carvin Jones has done on this his 2006 UK Winter tour.

And tonight in Tooting, South West London, Carbon carved out his own special niche. Yes of course there are many more cultured players, players with more feel, and certainly better song writers, and as regards his vocals don’t ask, but when it comes down to it, Carvin Jones and his power trio have that rare ability to set light a venue, and take people to fever pitch.

Of course it helps if you look a little like Hendrix, perform some astoundingly outrageous guitar stunts, and play at the speed of light. But this particular midweek February show tore up the scripts, made a mockery of considered debate and went for the throat. Born in Texas, raised in Phoenix Arizona, Carvin isn’t called the Phoenix Thunderbolt for nothing. And before the blues cognescenti dive for cover at the thought of an avalanche of Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, let’s just consider Carvin’s last few numbers of a blistering first set.

Having blazed a trail literally through the animated crowd and having totally captivated his audience with that all too rare quality of wanting to be loved, Carvin worked his way through a beautifully delivered instrumental version of “Little Wing”. He barely paused for breath before tearing across the room, to hit the stage with an autobiographical shuffle “Born To Win”, from the “I’m What You Need” album (Carvin isn’t short of self confidence). He juxtaposed that with another self-penned epic, “Midnight Seduction”. The latter stats incredibly quietly and brought the raucous crowd to virtual silence as he teased out a vibrato before building a staggering solo, that contained three separate attacks in one song. By the time of another stunt guitar outro on which he played his horizontal guitar with the soles of his feet, Carvin had proved his ability to take a crowd up, down, sideways and to the pitch of hysteria, and this was only the first set!

And there lies the kernel of what it is that makes the Jones phenomenon so addictive. This self taught rock blueser who enjoys exploring everything from Freddie King, and Howlin Wolf to Cream, Beck, Clapton and Hendrix, is simply guided by whatever his crowd wants. And on this freezing cold February night he attracted a truly international cast of Russians, Poles, French, Spanish and Austrians, and even a couple of fellow countrymen plus gasp the Tooting regulars. The result was a totally spontaneous, mesmerising, show, bags of fun, and to the youngsters in the crowd, perhaps shades of what Hendrix might have been like, but twice as fast.

In an era when guitar heroes, carry with them egos the size of their amps, here is a man who walks in the place, greets everyone himself, takes all of 20 seconds to prepare and barely a minute later, flies his guitar through the air with a huge smile…the first of many in a captivating evening, hail Carvin Jones The King of Tooting!

Pete Feenstra - www.feenstra.co.uk