Saskatchewan.Sounds: REVIEW: Champion

Champion maestro of techno-funk groove

Jeanette Stewart, The StarPhoenix

Published: Monday, June 25, 2007

Sunday's festivities at the Bessborough Gardens had all the right details -- from the exhuberant high-kicking dancers with incredible stamina, to the small children running across the grass with helium balloons, and the stylish young people out to have a good time.

What Sunday's SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival line-up also offered was a solid day of music, mixing up local acts Tim Vaughn and the Huxxtabulls with db Clifford's funky keyboard pop and Moses Mayes' jazz fusion.

In their second night opening the main stage show, Moses Mayes put on an even more energetic performance than the night before. The audience, obviously willing to get the dance party started in advance of Champion, easily got into the group's funk grooves.

The night was only beginning to cool by the time Champion and his G-Strings began. While a long day of excellent music and plenty of sunshine might have tired out a less-willing crowd, the audience began to pack in close before Champion even arrived on stage.

Champion started to build the suspense immediately with his opening techno loops. A quiet groove established, Champion slowly and patiently built up the energy. A polite mosh pit had begun before the song even crested into its first real wave.

Sporting his trademark thick black frames and clad simply in long shorts and a loose-hooded sweater, Champion began to bounce, conducting his four guitar players who reacted to his hand signals.

Teasing energy out of an oh-so-willing audience, Champion (Maxime Morin) controlled the music with two laptops and a control panel to shift the volume of his techno loops up and down. His guitar and bass players sported the same casual gear -- perhaps a conscious effort to make the performance more about the music than the musicians.

In the throng of people moving easily to the pulsing groove, the energy rushed through the dancing bodies. By the time vocalist Betty Bonifassi began her part, the crowd was in Champion's hands. Outside the dancers, away from the heat created by so many jumping bodies, the people in lawn chairs began to stand, dancing tentatively along.

And this was only the first song. At press time, the sky was only beginning to dim to a dusky blue as the sounds of Champion's unique techno soundscape echoed off the downtown apartment towers.

jstewart@sp.canwest.com