Gig Review
Music Spoken Here presents
Dreamscapes
Thursday 12th June 2025 @ The Marrs Bar, Worcester
The rainy afternoon turned into a gloriously sunny evening on Thursday as we opened the doors to our penultimate show of the season for our jazz, funk & fusion program at The Marr’s Bar. It was great to see our resident DJ MooreFeJazz back in the house, ten weeks after knee surgery, who got us warmed up for Dreamscapes, a band I first saw at Digbeth Jazz last Autumn, during a tour that also stopped by Kidderminster Jazz Club run by Annette Gregory, a fellow partner in the Jazz Midlands collective of independent promoters.
Formed by guitarist Julien Durand, London-based Dreamscapes includes the familiar faces of George Garford (who appeared with Torin Davies Quartet last September) on saxophone and John Jones, who was with us just three weeks ago with the Karim Saber Quintet, on bass. The lineup also featured the stunning vocals of Lucy Anne Daniels, Cenk Esen on keys and John Robson on drums. I love seeing a busy stage!
A solo drum introduction from Jack broke the anticipatory silence in the room, establishing a triplet-rhythm subsequently joined with a simple bass line from John as Julien added distant, echoey guitar and Lucy Anne vocalised harmoniously, demonstrating expert control of the microphone to moderate the amplification of her impressively powerful voice. This turned out to be ‘Strider’, the first track on their debut EP. Although the recorded version comes in under five minutes, as a live performance it expanded into a 12-minute ‘prog/jazz’ epic, with a deliciously dazzling jazz-rock guitar solo from Julien followed by an piano solo from Cenk. The piece came to a fantastic crescendo with power chords as George got involved with some fiery sax behind Lucy Anne’s wordless vocal tones.
Without hesitation, the band shifted down to a much more spatial, eerie soundscape, which paused to allow Lucy Anne’s solo vocal introduction to fill the room, emerging with the lyrics of ‘Black Is The Colour (of my True Love’s Hair)’, a traditional folk song favoured by Nina Simone that appeared on her 1966 album ‘Wild Is The Wind’. The song ended with the first opportunity for the captivated audience to show their appreciation with a hearty round of applause.
‘One Brush, Two Colours’, inspired by the American abstract painter Mark Rothko, began with a repeated chord on piano, soon augmented with brushing of drums and the siren voice of Lucy Anne. A playful, undulating piano feature from Cenk climbed to an exciting peak before bringing us back down to a soft reprise of the opening theme of the tune.
At this point, Julien, who had not spoken since the start of the set, introduced the band and identified the three preceding songs and announced the next as ‘Nosedive’, which featured a lush saxophone intro with harmonising vocals. George got to shine through on this one with an animated and dynamic alto sax solo followed by a further fusion fretboard excursion from Julien and the first extended drum feature of the evening from Jack.
After a short break, the band returned to the stage with a subdued solo introduction from Cenk on the Nord Stage keyboard making an electric piano sound with some form of vibrato effect as Jack stepped in with a beat and George’s sax feature sang out joyfully, building excitement before the piece faded away, into a haunting hiatus of subtle, wispy synth sounds as Lucy Anne’s vocals began to shine through with the enchanting melody of ‘Wanderer’, eventually George stating a phrase that becomes the ‘hook’ of the piece as it transitions into a faster rhythm and another intricate voyage on alto sax. I was delighted to hear this piece, co-written by Julien and Lucy Anne, will be the first single from their upcoming album, which has already been recorded so hopefully released in the next few months.
‘Sisyphus’ opens with something of a synth-pop feel, with John’s bass guitar taking on a ‘Moog-ish’ sound. Once again the gorgeous combination of George’s alto sax and Lucy Anne’s vocalised harmonies ooze into the mix as Cenk rolls out a wonderful solo on electric piano with occasional sweeping synth sounds added before passing the baton to Julien for an explorative guitar solo then another engaging expression from George on alto that ended in a sound that conjured images of a childhood garden swing. After a reprise of the theme, Lucy Anne enraptured the fixated audience with an impressive vocal solo with occasional use of subtle effects as the piece transitioned into the abstract introduction to ‘Dawn of the Birds’, recorded on their EP and emulating the gradual build of a dawn chorus with each instrument adding its own voice incrementally, eventually developing into a glorious prog-rock style belter, including a fantastic vocal section, this time with lyrics, not included on the recording.
As is often the case with younger bands we bring up from London, Dreamscapes had to catch the last train back to London so there was not time for what would have been a very well deserved encore. (From the Autumn, our Thursday night gigs will start 30 minutes earlier to make it easier both for travelling musicians and audience members to get home without missing out). I look forward to the album and watching Dreamscapes’ future unfold.
For me, the incredible vocal talents of Lucy Anne Daniels was the highlight of an evening full of bold, progressive music. As one of our club members commented on social media after the event “Dreamscapes are one of the crop of new jazz bands that manage to carve out their own sound, much respect to them and I’m sure I’ll catch them again soon.”
By: Dave Fuller