Monday, May 10th, 2010
A pretty large group (singer, bassist, guitarist, violinist, synth player, drummer, and horns/flute section) from Cape Town, Freshlyground is crazy good. Their sound is rock, but with a heavy Afro and jazz influence. Think Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings but a little less throwback and more nu-soul.
I had the good fortune of meeting the violinist from the group just last Saturday. A family friend of mine knows an incredible amount of people here. I had tickets to their concert that night, so it was pretty cool to meet her before the show.
Their show, or what I saw of it, was incredible. I didn’t get there until close to the end, which I immediately regretted. I saw two songs and an encore. Lucky for me, the encore was a good 3 or 4 songs long, including one of their biggest hits (“I’d Like”) and the greatest Michael Jackson cover I’ve ever seen. The vocalist’s voice squeals just when she needs it to, and it’s such a full sound that she had no problem taking over MJ’s part. Add in a few horns, some funky drums, and a really tight baseline (and don’t forget a crazy synth solo!) and you’ve got a crazy recipe for a cover.
Oh, and that World Cup song by Shakira? It might be terrible, but the good bits are courtesy of Freshlyground. They weren’t supposed to be in it at all, but the producers wanted something more “African” and the band happened to be in the same NYC studio. Go figure that some of the only South African involvement in the South African World Cup Song was snuck in by accident.
Link: freshlyground.com