Gig Review: Chube
Thursday 14th November, The Marr’s Bar, Worcester
I’m still buzzing from Thursday’s gig from Chube, who totally blew away any preconceptions of a jazz harp trio that you might have brought through the door. BBC Wales Introducing presenter Adam Walton described them as artists that “just do whatever the hell they please….they clearly don’t give a fig for whatever bandwagons that pass through town“. Indeed, their repertoire on Thursday ranged from jazz to disco, reggae to pop and even a Led Zeppelin cover, demonstrating the versatility of the harp and the incredible talent of this Cardiff-based trio of Ben Creighton Griffiths on harp and keyboards, Ashley John Long on bass and John Bradford-Jones on drums.
The set opened with “Hello There”, the first track from their 2023 “Electro-acoustic Boogaloo” EP. Straight in with the distinctive, natural tone of Ben’s solo harp, the piece soon picked up pace with a triplet bass groove from Ashley. This transitioned into a rockier chorus as John came in on drums with Ben injecting a repetitive dance-music keyboard motif, before resuming with a delightfully intricate harp and bass duo with Ashley.
This was followed by Shift – their first recording from 2016 that appeared on their eponymous debut EP. A bouncy dance number, this had Ben playing keys (left hand) and harp (right hand) simultaneously, an impressive skill he used frequently throughout the evening. We also got to see for the first time how accomplished Ashley is with an excitingly busy solo on his six-string bass.
“Black Orpheus”, by Luiz Bonfa started out as a laid-back bossa nova before dropping into an equally laid back reggae vibe, with another busy but melodic bass solo from Ashley.
“Katibim” is inspired by a familiar traditional Turkish folk song and also appears on the Electro-Acoustic Boogaloo EP. It opened with Ben augmenting the beautiful tone of the harp with an echo effect, and a solo organ passage leading into a funky groove with Ashley once again spidering around the fretboard with a bright, staccato sound.
“The Land”, in a 5/4 time signature, segued into “Interlude”, both from their debut EP. This was followed by a funky back-beat rendition of Miles Davis’ “Milestones”. Another astounding top-end bass solo from Ashley had me wondering if the band were going to charge by the note, but it wasn’t just technical brilliance on display – his solos were all perfectly complementary to the tune.
The first set ended with “Iguana” – a piece inspired by Ben’s musical hero Herbie Hancock and currently unrecorded. Ben first heard Herbie’s Headhunters aged 7, when he ‘borrowed’ the CD from his jazz piano teacher at the time (the CD was never returned and Headhunters was the first LP record Ben bought when he got a record player at 21).
The band returned to the stage to open the second set with another yet to be recorded piece “Prelude”, a joyful tune loosely based on the opening piece of Ben’s harp and orchestra concerto. “Ligma”, a single from 2020, began with a spacey echo harp introduction, picking up a funky break-beat snare / hihat rhythm from John and another blistering solo of sixteenths from Ashley. This was followed by their other 2020 single release, “Salty Tongue”.
Demonstrating the flexibility of the band and the application of harp to popular music, Chube covered “Hey Ya” by Outcast followed by a fantastic rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “When The Levee Breaks”, complete with overdrive effects on the harp and another insanely demanding bass solo from Ashley. (Ben confessed to this piece being positioned to ‘alienate’ the classical harp audience at their first ever Harp festival coming up in Germany!). It was followed by another of Ben’s fun compositions entitled “When the Reggae Breaks”!
Ben admitted his taste for disco occasionally creeps into some of his writing, and this was apparent with the last two pieces of the set, both taken from their 2023 EP. “Celestial Dance” started with a dreamy solo electric piano intro, extending the sound with Ben playing harp & keys simultaneously again, then dropping into a proper funky disco groove, with more slurring, squizzy synth from Ben. The set ended with the mightily fun “Trash Panda Disco” – unapologetically embracing the disco vibe with Ben on keys, the harp being rested on this occasion.
The audience hollered and whooped for more, and more they got, in the shape of a George Benson styled cover of “Nature Boy”, originally by Eden Ahbez, but not before Ben thanked Willis for the great job on sound (as always) and the Marr’s Bar staff, also acknowledging the “top standard” of treatment they had received from Music Spoken Here compared with other places they have performed.
The only possible disappointment of the evening was the number of empty seats (although we were competing with Pat Metheny, who by all accounts played a spectacular solo performance in Birmingham that night). While the harp may have put a few people off, there were more new faces among our regular Thursday night audience that had come specifically to see the band and if any of you are reading this, I hope we see you all again soon!
By: Dave Fuller, Instigator @ Music Spoken Here