Thundercat has landed to make us forget Sanremo

Right now in contemporary music Thundercat is not only one of the most loved and transversal bassists around, capable in his career of collaborating with both Ariana Grande and Herbie Hancock, to put his cosmic touch on timeless masterpieces like “To Pimp a Butterfly” by Kendrick Lamarof being part of a boy band, but also of a thrash metal formation like Suicidal Tendencies. It’s something more: it’s an alien. He has an “other” conception of music. Californian, dread hair with Gucci hairpin, sunglasses, an aesthetic that seems to come out of a manga or a dystopian film à la Mad Max, he is a fun and mystical character, that releases music from every pore. Kimonos with his symbol also appear in the merchandising, almost as if to build a small personal mythology. The European tour presenting the new album “Distracted” started from Milan, from Alcatraz. A fairly full club, capable of conveying the feeling of a curious and involved audience. The album will be released on April 3rd.

Live, he is the absolute protagonist. Thundercat is simultaneously frontman and bassistan approach reminiscent of the one he had in the seventies Jaco Pastorius. On stage he is accompanied only from Hamm Dennis’ keyboards and Justin Brown’s drumsan essential lineup that leaves room for a continuous interaction between groove and improvisation. The concert looks like a great jam. A live show that mixes jazz, funk, rock, soul, with some unreleased songs from the new album and material taken from “The Golden Age of Apocalypse” and “Apocalypse”his first two albums. There is chaos, but it is always quite disciplined: it never really derails. And this is perhaps one of the flaws of the show, which it fails to generate the true thrill of abandonment. At the same time it is an interesting show because it manages to be very dense and technical, It has a clear jazz origin, but also pop. There are moments when open refrains emerge, sung by him and the audienceand suddenly the sound becomes soft, almost enveloping. The groove takes over and the audience starts to move. It’s yet another demonstration that complexity does not exclude a popular dimension.

Live requires dedication and listening. It’s edgy at first: the phrasing between bass and drums is tight, continuous, almost breathless. It’s a sort of preparatory phase. From the second half onwards, however, the concert opens and the more accessible songs arrive, the ones in which the audience finally lets themselves go. It’s as if Thundercat in the first part wants to test those who listen to him, asking for concentration. Then, once conquered, she drags everyone into her world: a warm universe where they coexist hip hop attitude, psychedelia, irony and a certain punk spirit of defianceall elements that he raised in his career by collaborating with that genius Flying Lotus. Between one song and another there are moments of pure entertainment. Thundercat talks a lot, improvises nonsense jokes and creates little comical pauses that lighten the musical tension. It’s part of his record.

The new album “Distracted” revolves around a simple idea: sometimes you have to distract yourself to concentrate in a different way. It’s a phrase that seems to perfectly describe his concerts too. First the difficulty, then the opening. First the listening, then the party. The live show reaches up to more emotional moments such as the collaborations with the late friend Mac Miller. In the end the musician proves that he is not just one of the most sought-after names in the studio. He is also a performer capable of holding a stage naturally. It is curious that this concert comes after a week in Italy dominated by the media noise of the Sanremo Festival. A week in which music often tends towards simplification. Thundercat does the opposite. But his is not technicality as an end in itself, nor haughty virtuosity. It is not the music of those who say “I know how to play”. It is the conscious joy of living and making music. And that’s perhaps why, for one evening, he truly seemed to land like an alien. To make us forget Sanremo.

Ladder:
Baked Potato
Candlelight
Louis Cole
Black Qualls
How Sway / Uh Uh
Overseas
Wish I Didn’t Waste Ur
Pozole
ADD Through the Roof
Dance With Me
Walking on the Moon
At Fan’s Mail
Anakin Learns His Fate
Durag
Funny Thing
No More Lies
ThemChanges
Show You The Way
What’s The Use / She Knows Too Much