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Another year, another residency at the Blue Note club in Milan for the British acid jazz band Incognito. Well over 40 years long standing, with talisman “Bluey” Jean-Paul Maunick at the helm, the band have always plied their trade, worked hard on the road all over the world and this has seen them through the high’s of chart success and the low’s of the early 2000’s with a label change from Gilles Peterson’s ‘Talkin’ Loud’, the specialist Acid Jazz record label to more minor, independent ones. Now with a resurgence of the soul/jazz genre in the last 10 years, a band like Ezra Collective even winning the 2023 Mercury Music Prize, it’s business as usual for Incognito with big tours and albums on the go. It has to be said that Milano and Italy in general have always been good to Incognito in the last three decades and that explains the 12 sold out sets at the Blue Note with tonight’s late set being the very last one of the series.
The Milanese crowd can be a bit standoffish sometimes unlikely to make themselves look awkward or be footloose and fancy free but as ever the Incognito band are always joyous and a certain infectious enthusiasm rubs off on the crowd midway into the set. Great jazz/soul licks by Charlie Allen on lead and rhythm guitar and Francis Hylton along with drummer Francesco Mendolia simply groove, making one’s heart pump and shoes tap in time to the beat whether you like to or not.
The band seem to stick to a regular set of songs, at least that’s what I’ve seen over the years but they play around with the format so sometimes all 13 musicians are on stage, at other times just a few. Indeed, it was cool to see some band members grabbing a drink and in the crowd enjoying their fellow band members doing their stuff on stage whilst they chilled for a while.
“Always There”, “1975”, “Don’t You Worry About a Thing”, never disappoint; the glorious “Still a Friend of Mine” always rings true but tonight’s highlight for me was “When The Sun Comes Down” with a splendid Tony Momrelle on main vocals really nailing it.
Bluey always tells tales and spouts messages of peace and love from his microphone and he means it too. The vision he had 45 years ago of a band that would fulfill his boyhood dreams is still full on and Incognito always leave you in a good place in both body and mind. They have just completed 5 days of shows at Ronnie Scott’s but they will be playing over Europe and England this coming summer. Go see; Grab an aperol spritz and chill out.
For the first time in two years, American singer-songwriter Jesse Malin returns to London after suffering a rare spinal stroke in 2023 that left him paralysed from the waist down, abruptly halting a career built on decades of restless touring.
In September 2024, a tribute album titled ‘Silver Patron Saints’ was released, featuring reinterpretations of Malin’s songs by fellow rock and roll royalty including Bruce Springsteen, Counting Crows and Billie Joe Armstrong. As with the tribute album, proceeds from Malin’s two London shows will go directly toward supporting his continued medical treatment. These Islington Assembly Hall gigs were a homecoming, and the feeling in the crowd was of pure love and affection.
We were presented with Jesse seated in the centre of the stage, however after a handful of songs, he stood up and the crowd went crazy. As a natural orator, he piled us with plenty of candid comments and intimate stories putting us all at immediate ease with his fragile state. Renown for his signature blend of rock, Americana, and punk, his 2-hour set of 24 songs had a fair few tracks from 2015’s ‘New York Before the War’ as well as highlighting different eras of his solo career, with nods to his punk roots in D Generation and Heart Attack.
Not only running through fan favourites, Jesse Malin and his band hit us with a few covers, ‘Sway’ by The Rolling Stones, Patti Smith’s ‘Free Money’ and one from The Pogues (If I Should Fall From Grace With God), as well as bringing legendary British folk singer-songwriter Billy Bragg on stage to sing ‘Ameri'ka’ and The Clash’s ‘Rudie Can't Fail’. We also had The Only Ones frontman Peter Perrett following on from Billy with their 1978 hit ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’ and a heartfelt message from him to Jesse.
You could tell his fans weren’t just there to hear the songs they loved. They came to stand by an artist whose vulnerability and courage have become as vital to his story as his lyrics. Jesse thanked everyone for coming out for him and, even more miraculously, walked (zimmer frame-assisted) off stage to raucous applauds.
Set list:
1. I Would Do It for You
2. Oh Sheena
3. Addicted
4. Downliner
5. If I Should Fall From Grace With God (The Pogues cover)
6. Room 13
7. Turn Up the Mains
8. The Way We Used to Roll
9. She Don't Love Me Now
10. Free Money (Patti Smith cover)
11. Brooklyn (Bellvue song)
12. The Archer (Jesse Malin & The Saint Marks Social cover)
13. State of the Art
14. Black Haired Girl
15. All the Way From Moscow (Jesse Malin & The Saint Marks Social cover)
16. She's So Dangerous
17. Sway (The Rolling Stones cover)
18. Wendy
19. Meet Me at the End of the World
20. Shining Down (with Aaron Lee Tasjan)
21. Ameri'ka (with Billy Bragg)
22. Rudie Can't Fail (The Clash cover) (with Billy Bragg)
23. Another Girl, Another Planet (The Only Ones cover) (with Peter Perrett)
24. You Know It's Dark When Atheists Start to Pray
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