Pura Vida & Congo Ashanti Roy: one love live

Was Puraman Bregt De Boever too busy to keep his 11-headed band in line?  Did he perhaps underestimate the difficulty of four part community singing that he aspires in the wake of The Congos?  Or could the engineer have done more, like the Puraman who works miracles in his studio?  Fact is that particularly his own bold falsetto's went wrong now and then, something that struck us even more in the few hits of the Congos that were on the programme: 'Open the gate', 'Lala bam bam', 'Sodom and Gomorrah' and the sing along song 'Row fisherman row'. 

Anyone who wants to match Cedric Myton, has to keep his wits about him, and De Boever was clearly too busy for that, also because he didn't want to hand over his role as lead singer to Congo Ashanti Roy, who lacked too much in power and charisma to claim the lead role.  It was all very convivial on the stage and the audience thirsted for the positive vibrations, but the vocals were not on a par. 

Those of Saimn-I and Collieman were, by the way; Beljam stars in their own right, who each have already released their own album.  They did perfectly what they had to do, at the right moments, also as musicians, on respectively the keys and the percussion.  Their backings reminded me especially of The Maytones, one of my favourite vocal duos from the 70s.    For the rest of the band nothing but praise.  Tight rhythm section, majestic copper blowers, echoes of rock, blues and country in the guitar work: Pura Vida creates a powerful, organic roots sound that you rarely hear in the present day Jamaican reggae. 

And that goes for the songs too, of course.  Next to the Congos classics, a few ironclad new and older tracks by Pura Vida itself ('Red hot', 'Broken hearted', 'Row the boat ashore', 'Who feels it knows it', 'Higher and higher', 'Africa'…), the best of 'Hard road' ('Beware', 'Only Jah', 'Energy', the title track…), the mighty 'African blood' (which Shanti once recorded for Adrian Sherwood), and a brand new tune. Ashanti Roy and the Puraman are at the moment back in the studio for new recordings.  Not a top notch concert, then, but we have been spoiled rotten the last few years.  There is nothing to be said about the quality of the musicians, and there were also four excellent singers on the stage.  But the magic of the albums was not there. 

Compared to the 24 carat diamond that is the Music from the Lost Ark, the combi Pura Vida-Congo Ashanti Roy live is rather a diamond in the rough.  Give this company a chance to play together for about ten times (unfortunately, that won't happen), put a decent engineer behind the sound board, and you will get a top act.