A couple of days ago, VibeRide was amongst 300 people to see Jamiroquai play an exclusive gig at the intimate Jazz Cafe in London.
Minus the usual feathered head dress and sporting instead a more modest purple trillby, Jay Kay hit the stage with more band members than could physically fit onto it. This meant we were treated to the peculiar spectacle of backing-singers standing on a stair case, but it took nothing away from Jamiroquai's performance.
The specially arranged show coincided with Jamiroquai's newly released album, Rock Dust Light Star, several songs from which they performed on the night, and was the reward for 150 lucky competition winners who had entered by buying the album.
Having already seen Jamiroquai in Hyde Park and at the much larger Kentish Town Forum, Jay Kay appeared to us happier and more relaxed in the cosy setting of the Jazz Cafe, which showed in his humourous banter between songs and in the sweat he worked up performing them. Especially good were tracks All Good In The Hood, Smoke And Mirrors and White Knuckle Ride. A finale of Cosmic Girl and Deeper Underground, kept an adoring crowd happy, especially so since earlier in the evening Jay Kay had half-jokingly declared "I'm sick of that fu*king song" when people were appealing for the former.
This was the third time we had seen Jamiroquai this year and the Jazz Cafe performance was by far the best and most enjoyable. Intimate venues like the Jazz Cafe bring out the best in great jazz-funk acts and it's a shame Jamiroquai don't play such venues more often because you could sense it felt to the band like a real treat. Indeed Jay Kay had remarked "...it's great having the audience so close, usually you're about 6 miles away, ya know." Perhaps Jamiroquai, in this sense, are victims of their own success. With that in mind, we are delighted that we got to see them at the Jazz Cafe and it's another musical performance we'll remember for a long time to come.
VibeRide
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