VICTOR RICE'S LIVE AT THE KNITTING FACTORY

I’ve been struggling to write this CD a review that would do it justice. It’s always tough when you genuinely dig the music. And typically, when you dig something so heavily, you dig it for reasons you can’t quite verbalize.
I get lost in this disc. I forget that I’m here, far, far away from the Knitting Factory, where the live set took place. Yes, it is a live disc. Live at the Knitting Factory, appropriately enough. And if the Factory is smart, they’ll pony up some distribution cash, because this album is the best advertisement they could have asked for.
Victor Rice and his equally appropriately named Victor Rice Octet slam through an intense set of Jamaican-rooted tunes. Ska, studio one style, and reggae, reggae, reggae. The legendary New York bassist is backed by an equally accomplished group of New York scene musicians, as well as legendary Jamaican percussionist Larry McDonald.
From the minute they launch into “Gravity”, the crowd is dancing, cheering, filling the recording with as much energy as the band.
And all I can do is fight back the tears of not having been there.
They continue on, playing tracks from Rice’s Victor Rice at Version City disc, and a wicked-smooth cover of the Temptations’ “Wish it Would Rain”. Guest vocalist Caz Gardiner belts it out with seasoned soul, and continues on for three more tracks, including a sad tune called ”Baby I” and the ferocious “Feel Like Jumping”.
For a live disc to make you envy a time and a place is a feat unfamiliar to me. But I now know I need to pay the Knitting Factory a visit, and catch the Victor Rice Octet the next time they play.
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