Art School Live @ Manchester Met review – A cosy night of original music celebrating everything Black and British
By Harry Thurstan | Featured image: Matt Dreher/Art School Live
There is something revealing about watching a handful of artists share a small stage. Without the scale or spectacle of a larger production to fall back on, the music has to hold the room. At Art School Live’s Black History Month showcase, that means a sequence of sets that dance between jazz, rap, R&B and reggae, each bringing a different atmosphere to the evening.
With a standing audience and stage dressed with rugs and potted plants, the venue – a TV studio tucked away in the Grosvenor East building – feels pleasantly warm and personal. Manchester-based DJ Sheri keeps the music going before and between performances, so there’s little pause in the evening. Alongside the crowd, TV cameras fill the space, ready to capture the entire set for a live broadcast led by the student production team.
Rory Green opens the show with guitar and synth, blending jazz and classical influences. The Manchester-based guitarist and composer describes his songs as more of a “journey” than anything else, something he absolutely delivers on. The dulcet tones of classical guitar gradually layer and build over the course of each song, adding to the room’s intimate feel. His soothing, otherworldly take on jazz makes for a strong start to the show.
Grumpy shifts the focus towards rap, blending UK rap and African influences. Opening with ‘Paycheck’, he delivers the track with the mic held close and his head lowered. His vocal is understated, at times almost a whisper, drowned out by the backing track. It gives the performance a raw, slightly rough-edged feel. The set closes with ‘Alaye’, where the complex chemistry of his sound shines through best. As promised at the start of the set, the track includes lyrics in Yoruba. “You do understand English,” he reassures the crowd. “My music just has a little of a different language in it.” It’s a light-hearted introduction to a song that makes room for his Nigerian heritage, bringing the set to a strong close.
Bringing a change of pace with heavenly R&B vocals, Tsana delivers an intimate set that draws on her Jamaican and Bajan roots. These influences are reflected in both the music and the staging, with a row of CRT monitors at the back of the stage flashing with the flags of Barbados and Jamaica. The set becomes more personal towards the end, with ‘Daddy’s Jeep’, a song about memories of her late father and the rides they took around town in his jeep. As she explains the song’s meaning, the performance takes on a more reflective feel.
J Chambers closes the night with a lively fusion of reggae and hiphop. His set is politically direct from the outset. Cutting straight to the point with ‘Repatriation Chant’ a fiery track off his latest album, We Nah Play, addressing the struggles of immigrants living in the UK. But the performance never feels weighed down by its subject matter. Chambers’ take on reggae is fun and upbeat – he’s an artist who knows how to get a crowd moving. During ‘Overstand’, he even gets a call-and-response going with an audience that has otherwise been relatively quiet. His set feels like a fitting end to the evening, bringing the showcase’s celebration of Black voices into focus without losing sight of the music itself.
For many of the team, this is their first time putting on a show of this scale – something you wouldn’t know from watching. The concert is slick, well-produced and runs smooth overall. There are occasional technical hiccups and a few awkward pauses, but these are expected from such a complex operation with so many moving parts. The lineup doesn’t have a single weak link. With another Art School Live event already in the works, it’s one to keep an eye on.
Follow @artschoollive on Instagram and keep up with past events at www.artschoollive.co.uk.
