Anthony Joseph

Anthony Joseph is a London based poet from Trinidadean descent. I knew Anthony Joseph from his albums and concerts with his Spasm Band: a boiling hot funkteam, inspired by the likes of Defunkt, Gil Scott-Heron, James Brown, Fela Kuti and Linton Kwesi Johnson, mixed with soca flavours from the Caribean. The Spasm band was my favourite live gig, because beautiful lyrics with provocative content went together with soca- and funkgrooves that made dancing inescapable: food for the mind and the body. After ten years with the Spasm band Anthony Joseph decided he had to make changes. He abolished the Spasms. His new album Time was produced by Me'Shell Ndegeocello. It seemed to me better produced but also containing less structured songs than his previous work. I miss the funk grooves. The lyrics are beautiful and strong as ever though. It was with a worried heart that I went to Rotterdam, where the only concert in the Netherlands was staged in an atmospheric club with multicultural vibes called Bird.I needn't have worried. In no time the stage went on fire. The band consists of a wonderful talented young drummer, a heavyweight percussionist, a multipurpose keyboards player and the bassist that also played in the late Spasm band. They played 75 minutes and mainly songs from the new album. But the fireworks on stage made me hear many new things in these songs and I appreciate the album the better for it. Improvisation, joy, playfulness, grooves, and the great deliverance of Anthony himself resulted in something I had never heard before, but gladly want to hear again. If you have the chance to see them, take the opportunity!