DAVID HILLYARD & THE ROCKSTEADY 7 – Way Out East: Live At the Kassablanca – CD

Label: Brixton Records
Code: BR-022-CD
Format: compact disc, album
Release: 2007

“Improvise and you shall conquer” is saxophonist David Hillyard’s motto. He has experienced many ups and downs during his 20-year musical career, but his musical vision has endured: a fiery blend of jazz, reggae, ska and African percussion. His solos soar like a kite on a windy day. They flit from one place to another, exploring the different colours of music, revelling in the brilliance of his rhythm section.

This free spirit is captured on *Way Out East* (Brixton Records 022 (2007)), a live CD recorded during his 2004 European tour. The CD opens with a solo by Dave, played in a minor key with an African theme that blends into the melody of his 1999 classic, “Playtime”. Every track that follows is shaped by its soloists. Dave is so passionate that it is as if his saxophone were possessed by demons. Rolf Langsjoen is calm and serene, yet deeply romantic. Buford O’Sullivan, the trombonist, is playful and shrewd. The rhythm section responds expertly to every shift in mood, creating ‘songs within the song’. As a whole, the band plays as if their lives depended on it.

As Dave explains, “It was a bit of a strange day. We were in East Germany, in Jena, at a club housed in an abandoned railway station. It was a really cold, rainy day.” At 8.30 pm, the venue was completely empty and it looked as though the night was going to be a disaster. I was starting to wonder what on earth I was doing there. Then I went back to the dressing room and found the rest of the band partying with a bottle of Habana Club, a few beers and smoking something. So I joined in the fun. We went on stage at 9.30 pm, completely relaxed, and found ourselves facing a packed venue. Suddenly, we were caught up in a party and you could hear the band’s unexpected joy at this. We ended up playing for two hours straight and two long encores. We played everything we knew – we even played songs we didn’t know! The warmth and enthusiasm we received from the audience that night gave us energy and we didn’t want to stop. And when we tried to stop… they wouldn’t let us!”

Dave began performing professionally in front of audiences when he was 17. He was a member of two major ska bands, The Donkey Show and Hepcat; the latter would go on to achieve fame after he left the band. His career finally took off when he joined The Slackers, where he has played an integral part in the recording of their 10 CDs and their more than a thousand concerts over the last fifteen years.

Through his association with The Slackers, he met Tim Armstrong of Rancid. Tim believed in Dave’s music and helped him record his debut solo album, *Playtime*. *Playtime* was a raucous mix of Miles Davis-style melodies, New Orleans marches and Jamaican percussion. For his second album, *Unite Front*, Dave took songs from the Spanish Civil War and set them to reggae rhythms.

But Dave has always been frustrated by the artificiality of the studio. At his gigs, he feels free to play whatever he likes, to try whatever comes to mind. This infectious freedom and joy is something we see in “Way Out East”. Dave is obsessed with finding his own sound in this world, and who knows, perhaps he has already found it.