BLUES IN SOHO: ERROL LINTON & ADAM BLAKE

Since our move to Bromley, life has been pretty busy – though we did get away to Croatia in August. But between Affordable Granite, weddings and portrait/events work for the Salvation Army, my feet haven’t spent long on the ground.

A couple of Friday’s ago I took half a day off – really off – and headed into town. My favourite blues duo, Errol Linton and Adam Blake, were due to play at Café Boheme on Old Compton Street and I wanted to be there. Generally they are booked for Thursday afternoons, but on this occasion it was a Friday and it worked just right for me.  Train to Victoria from Bromley South, and then a bus to Soho (tubes were problematic)…

Errol Linton and Hami Lee at Café Boheme in Soho

Lumix G9 20mm lens @ f1.7 1/100 ISO200

It is hard to put into words just how much live blues music means to me. And these guys are the real thing. Errol and Adam have been playing together for a quarter of a century. Their communication is instinctive; their love for the music equal and deep. They are not merely reproducing the great songs, but they make them their own, refilling them with their own emotion and belief.  Their knowledge of the music is encyclopedic, but they don’t show you the blues as if preserved in a glass case. The blues is alive when these two are in town.

This was the first time I had seen them play with Hami Lee on cajon. His rhythm brought the sound close to the stonk of a full band – a happy addition.

It is for others to judge whether Errol is the best blues harmonica player in the UK; many say he is. I only know that our first Errol Linton gig, at the Green Note in Camden, inspired my middle stepson Ben to take up the harp himself. ‘Nuff said.

When playing with his full band, Errol brings a mix of influences and roots. His dad came over from Jamaica, and in some of the band songs you get your Wolf and your Waters mixed with a good dose of Marley and Boothe. That strand is less in evidence in the duo/trio, which is simply great, pure blues. I love both the band work and the duo work, and can only recommend that you get to hear Errol whenever he is down your way. See his website, ErrolLinton.com.

Adam has now moved to Scotland, so is no longer the Errol Linton Band’s regular guitarist, but I am so glad he makes the monthly pilgrimage to Soho. Check the Cafe Boheme live music page to see when the boys are next in town. I believe Adam still teaches guitar, including by virtual routes, so if you want to know how to pick the blues, contact him. He is easily found via Facebook or his YouTube channel.

Blues in Soho – Errol Linton at Café Boheme 

Nikon D700 58mm @ 1.4 1/100 ISO500

I very rarely go to a live music event without taking a camera with me. Not that I am fond of the practice of simply shooting or videoing everything – you have to be there for the music. As it was, I shared a plate of chips and had a couple of beers and enjoyed good company while we listened. The photos are secondary.

All the same, I took my Lumix G9 with 20 and 42mm lenses, and the old Nikon D700 with a 58mm 1.4. I am still getting used to the performance of the 58mm and wanted to try it out a bit more, and the Lumix is always fun for a gig. Plus I like to pit the two systems against each other: the Nikon an aging model but Full Frame, versus the (till last month!) top Panasonic Micro Four Thirds camera.

The Nikon D700

The Nikkor 58mm 1.4

Errol Linton
Nikon D700 with 58mm at f1.4 1/100 ISO320

Errol Linton
Lumix G9 with 42mm lens at f1.7 1/640 ISO200

These two photos from the two cameras have roughly the same view of the singer/harp player. The big differences are that there was much more light for the Lumix shot, which was taken earlier in the afternoon. And I leaned in further for the Nikon shot; the 58mm has a wider angle of view than the Lumix 42mm on the smaller sensor. Aside from that, both are good images, with the fabulous shallow depth of field on the full frame camera looking great, but the Lumix still doing a good job.

Adam Blake
Lumix G9 with 20mm lens @ f1.7 1/60 ISO320

Adam Blake 
Nikon D700 58mm @ f2 ISO1800 1/100

With the D700 once again having less light to play with, here are images of Adam from the two cameras – this time with the 20mm on the Lumix. I love that lens, which has a very noticeably wider angle of view than the 58mm, as you would expect. (20mm on an MFT body is roughly the same as a 40mm on a full frame – so a chunk wider than 58mm)

All of these images were created in colour, but there is something about the blues that says “black and white”. So that is what they are! The photography and editing has to be consistent with the subject matter, and I always feel that I need to stick to black and white with these two.

Are you a musician or band looking for photos – at gigs – in the studio or as general publicity material? I love to shoot live music, and to support musicians and poets any way I can with my cameras. Contact me if you think I can help you.