Sometimes you get so close to a band, it takes a friend seeing them for the first time to state the obvious."The big guy is giving it everything he's got", David Bronson whispered to me at BB King's around midnight as Tomas Doncker took his band through a vigorous support slot for Ethiopian pop star Teddy Afro.
Yes he is, but Doncker has been running at 100 mph at least since I first met him last summer. There was The Power Of The Trinity rock opera (I caught it at Summerstage), followed by the Lael Summer record and a terrific showcase for this True Groove Records artist, a trip to China. a CNN shout out segment on Tomas, a new album, the Marla Mase deluxe CD Speak which includes Bill Laswell’s Dubmix of "AnnaRexia" plus 2 new songs, plus working with the 100Girls project to benefit Ethiopian girls being moved out of Orphanages to a hideous future. Whenever I hang out with Tomas he is rushing from point a to point b at 100 miles per hour, but he is great company, emphatic, excited, and gentle.
Friday night, Tomas does indeed give it everything he has got, he is mix of three of these qualities. the big man imposes himself on stage and holds tight to the reigns of his band in a very strong 30 minute which would have be more powerful if BB King's audience wasn't quite so tired and if they weren't quite so thrilled to be awaiting Afro, a huge star in Africa, American debut. Like a shaman of power funk, pushing his voice as hard and as loud as he can, extolling the audience with calls to freedom. Tomas sees freedom as something that demands support from each of us back to our communities and back to the world, and he praises and insists upon it which can be wearying though not boring.
It is also very good stuff, relentlessly powerful with "Brooklyn To Ethiopia"'s bass and drums ridden roughshod and Tomas telling the audience to raise their arms, clap their hands, get involved. "Rise Above" is harder and faster on stage, Tomas is like Carol Kane in the Bill Murray movie "Scrooged", he pushes us shoves us, bends and bangs us to dance for his vision of Global Soul and Global Peace.
It is past midnight now and the audience is a great match though you don't think they necessarily would be, Teddy Afro plays Reggae with an African influence to the exclusion of all else, Doncker is a soul man despite covering The Mighty Diamonds on his upcoming album and despite a dreadlocked bassist. At one point the genius Ethiopian guitarist Selam Woldemerian, who stopped me in my tracks the first time I saw him play live, played a sleight of hand solo so sweet and enticing it seemed to meet Doncker and lead straight to Afro. An amazing meeting of musicals worlds.
And t there was no waiting for the set to catch fire, the Doncker Band were non stop energy through the entire 30 minutes, this was take no prisoner hard rocking stuff, much different to the band that played for Lael Summer's blue eyed soul, which figures, but different from the Ethiopian soul band who brought out Mahmoud Ahmed last summer and changed the direction of funk. It was uncompromising and so was Friday's gig. It was, in some ways, even more uncompromising at BB King's. Tomas can be charming but he was taking over by force not seduction. Tomas himself sang on a brilliant new pop song near the end of the night, "no hating just celebrating". People are gonna get the message one way or another and preceding Teddy Afro just insures it happens sooner for Afro in the States and Doncker everywhere.
Grade: B+