Legends on a stage at Meltdown Festival 2009

Greetings, Pilgrims of the Pix Dimension!

Well, yesterday was the start of the 2009 Meltdown Festival in London, which is being curated this year by saxophone powerhouse, Ornette Coleman.  If yesterday’s performances at The Royal Festival Hall and The Queen Elizabeth Hall at the South Bank were anything to go by, all the other following acts for the rest of the Festival have a huge task at hand.

The opening act had Birmingham Jazz Saxophonist Andy Hamilton with Ghanian percussionist Nana Tsiboe:

(shot was taken using ISO 3200 @ f/2.8 24-70 lens  at 1/125th)

Timing was a premium yesterday, I can tell you that! So, with one quick teleportation, I was at the QEH for the David Murray & The Gwo-Ka Masters:

The main event, though, was The Roots. This Hip-Hop gig was always going to have a huge turnout & be memorable.  These guys are a proven ‘gone-through-the-fire, we-can-hold-our own!‘ bunch, not a pack of wannabe ‘Yuggh-Yugh-Yeah‘ punks who think they can rap or perform, but ought to be back at pre-school participating in Spelling-Bee contests.  If you’re familiar with any of their material, you’d understand why Ornette Coleman included them in this year’s line up:

Of course, the whole performance was not solely hip-hop. It had a concoction of jazz, improvisation; drum solos, old material & favourites and such. I mean, they even played tribute to Fela Kuti with their hybrid version of ‘Beast of No Nation & ‘Zombie’:

Musically, the show was a blessing and then some. Pictorially, well, it was a challenge. Apart from having smoke all over the place (what is it with the smoke machines?!?!?) and horrid colour schemes, I eventually had to move away from the front and shoot from the side. So, sometimes, having the ‘privilage’ to shoot from the front can be a curse at times. But hey: we work with what we’re given with:

Black Thought & ?uestlove:

?uestlove in action:

The best part of the evening was when the Jazz saxophonist greats of Ornette Coleman, David Murray and Andy Hamilton (that’s over 2oo years of experience I’m guessing, folks!) came on stage:

Shots were taken with Sigma f/2.8 @ 200 with ISO ranging between 2200 & 4000.

Track recommendation from The Roots collection: Things Fall Apart.

Pax vobiscum!