Skip to main content
The sonic heaven of Dalston

Anthropology Band
Cafe Oto
★★★★
Paul G Smyth, John Edwards and Mark Sanders
Vortex
★★★★
   

DALSTON, east London, was the epicentre of free musical marvels last week.

At Cafe Oto the Anthropology Band showed how wondrously electric and acoustic sounds can gel so creatively and with such acerbic unity.

Martin Archer’s searing soprano and guttural tenor saxophone; Pat Thomas’s nonplussing keyboards;  the combined electric guitars  of Chris Sharkey and Anton Hunter; Dave Sturt’s pulsating bass guitar: Orphy Robinson’s pounding mallets: the cascades of Adam Farclough’s drums and the visceral, breathy vibrato of the trumpet and flugelhorn of Charlotte Keeffe. It was a timbral stew to be earnestly savoured.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
CS+SN
Interview / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to drummer Steve Noble
LEDLEY album cover
Men’s football / 4 April 2025
4 April 2025
CHRIS SEARLE interviews saxophonist Chris Williams about the extraordinary electro-acoustic album LEDLEY - a bold fusion of Jazz, football, and community spirit
ineza
Interview / 26 February 2025
26 February 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Rwanda-born jazz vocalist INEZA
somuah
Interview / 5 February 2025
5 February 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Ghanaian trumpeter PETER SOMUAH
Similar stories
vortex
Live Music Review / 12 February 2025
12 February 2025
CHRIS SEARLE samples the Kris Davis Trio at the Vortex and recommends highlights from the forthcoming programme
oto 2
Music review / 22 November 2024
22 November 2024
CHRIS SEARLE translates the fusion of four jazz maestros into a mental image of Hackney Carnival
Charles
Music review / 7 October 2024
7 October 2024
CHRIS SEARLE is transported by a superfine tribute to James Baldwin
Music review / 6 September 2024
6 September 2024
CHRIS SEARLE is transported by a combative fusion of US and UK instrumentalists and landmark evening of jazz