Sponsored link
Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Sponsored link

MusicMusic ReviewEddie Chacon and John Carroll Kirby unleashed trippy boogie...

Eddie Chacon and John Carroll Kirby unleashed trippy boogie in a Fender Rhodes whorl

Low-key legendary singer and jazz keyboardist flowed through compositions at The Chapel.

Eddie Chacon, a lowkey R&B legend, and John Carroll Kirby, a sought-after jazz keyboardist, took a two-week studio trip to Ibiza in October of 2021. A fan had offered Eddie and John the chance to stay in his Ibiza home for as long as they liked. While there, they rented the only Fender Rhodes on the island from a local rave crew, and used Pharoah Sanders’ “Greeting to Saud” as a daily inspiration source.

These sessions led to Sundown, Chacon’s tenderhearted R&B album that was released this spring on Stones Throw Records. It is experimental soul of the highest regard.

Not quite Mad Professor meets Marvin Gaye, but you get the idea.

The duo performed together at The Chapel on Wednesday, June 28, as the first date of their tour. Compositions flowed—calling them songs would just be clumsy, like they were working freehand—with Chacon bouncing, just as giddy as an elf working in a 12-months-a-year Christmas shop. He shared with the crowd that this was his first time performing in his hometown for a while. “I mean, I’m from Hayward,” he blurted out to his adorning fans.

(l) John Carroll Kirby and Eddie Chacon at The Chapel, June 28. Photo by John-Paul Shiver

Chacon spoke upfront about starting out as a metal vocalist (an era comprised mainly of screaming), and how decades later he was able to perform in the vein of artists who he adored all along, Marvin Gaye being one of them. Still, he was not able to sing in Gaye’s style or ilk. That all changed when he moved to LA and found himself, again.

The LA-based musician Kirby has a distinctive sound that goes beyond jazz.

He has worked with superstars like Solange, Frank Ocean, and Harry Styles as well as independent musicians like Yves Tumor, Connan Mockasin, Liv.e, and many more. His main thing has been blending genres—imagine Jan Hammer, minus the coke and perhaps a hint of shrooms. Inspired by time spent in Costa Rica playing with local musicians and imagining “failed utopias,” his new solo album Blowout was also released on the Stones Throw imprint last week. Obviously, that label is building a roster of artists who their post-hip-hop acolytes can follow without hesitation. Blowout is equal parts Quincy Jones ’70s funk and easygoing tenor that packs balminess and comedic swings.

John Carroll Kirby

In performance, these two risk-takers improvised sketches, used sung word sounds, and evolved arrangements that peaked and crested on the fly. Kirby whirled up his Fender Rhodes and keyboards, and Moog explored Stevie Wonder frequencies—Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants comes to mind offhand—but it didn’t matter. This crowd, not annoying hipsters nor obnoxious techies, more of a “let’s grab a beer after capoeira class” assemblage dressed in knitted hats fashioned into bizarre configurations, were there for all the trippy boogie.

During the performance of “Step by Step,” a song Chacon describes as “how a lot of what we experience is a mirror reflection of ourselves, finally realizing that oftentimes we are the only person standing in the way,” the young crowd kept on clapping midway through the song when the two performers on stage stopped momentarily.

Mysteriously, some crowd members—feeling something—swayed and danced to the non-present beat. Which I found funny.

Most people who dance and sway to songs with no beat are actually the same people who need forced rhythmic instruction, just to stay in the ballpark of rhythm.

Kirby, with a confused look on his face, did, in fact, return with the song on the beat, using corrective math to compensate for the off-time hippies grooving to the cosmic nature of the song. Similar to when Mary J. Blige dances to words?

Bingo.

Buy Eddie Chacon’s Sundown here.

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our FacebookTwitter, and Instagram

John-Paul Shiver
John-Paul Shiverhttps://www.clippings.me/channelsubtext
John-Paul Shiver has been contributing to 48 Hills since 2019. His work as an experienced music journalist and pop culture commentator has appeared in the Wire, Resident Advisor, SF Weekly, Bandcamp Daily, PulpLab, AFROPUNK, and Drowned In Sound.

Sponsored link

Sponsored link
Sponsored link

Featured

Hugh Bonneville’s ‘Uncle Vanya’ clocks the timeless flailing of family dysfunction

'No one is a villain, everyone is flawed,' says Downton Abbey star of Chekhov's classic tragicomedy at Berkeley Rep.

Lurie has no real plan to fund Muni or avoid service cuts

At Question Time, only vague words about seeking state help and future revenue measures

Fielder wants info on high-speed chase that led to crash injuring six in the Mission

Supes letter of inquiry raises questions about the new policy of allowing cops to chase suspects who are not an immediate violent threat

More by this author

Under the Stars: And the Grammy should have really gone to…

Plus: Help for LA fires victims, Noise Pop's third stellar drop, Joan Baez strums asleep, an '80s coldwave nugget, more music

5 actually intelligent TV shows we loved last year

From 'Landman' to 'Industry,' drop kick the brain rot and tune in to some of the best stuff on the tube.

Under the Stars: How Japan bumped the groove in the ’80s

Plus: Spellling's spell-binding new one, Mary Lou Williams' 'Zodiac Suite' live, a De La Soul treasure, more great music to sink into

You might also likeRELATED