W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

My oh my, its been some time since I wrote an actual piece on a live show. My bad folks. The drought officially comes to an end right now, and what better way to do it than with Jalen N’Gonda’s smooth grooves.

I had a lot to say about Jalen in 2023. I got to see him and his band in September at NYC’s Racket. And of course his masterful debut LP Come Around And Love Me was a top 10 album for me at year’s end. So the 1 or 2 people who actually read these things should be pretty familiar with the name Jalen N’Gonda.

Saturday in New York was an absolutely miserable rain soaked day so despite knowing that the show was sold out, I still wasn’t expecting the crowd which I witnessed after opening those steel entrance doors at the end of the bright yellow hallway of The Sultan Room. When I walked in, I was greated by a room of shoulder to shoulder fans. My immediate thought was, OK people are merely congregating up here and it’ll open up some as I move inside…WRONG. First I tried the steps to the left down to the front of stage area and things were just as (if not more) packed as it was near the entrance area. OK, lets try plan B. I backtracked to the upper area and forced my way through the merch table, coat check and bar area an descended the stairs on the right side of the room. Things weren’t much better at this end of the room but I was fortunate enought to squeeze into and stake out a spot off to what would be Jalen’s left. Back in September, I recall thinking to myself that his playing Racket, a venue which holds roughly 600 was a mistake. That show was not sold out and I stand by my initial reaction back then that he would have been better served by playing a smaller venue like Mercury Lounge, selling it out and creating a bit of a buzz. Perhaps my thoughts managed to get to Jalen’s management somehow and his booking at the smaller Sultan Room was spot on.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to catch any of Brooklyn’s own Benny Trokan’s opening set due to previous work obligations but judging from the mood of the crowd when I arrived, his set must have done the trick of getting everyone in that groove mood. Jalen and his band came out and wasted no time as they kicked right into “Rapture” the closing track from Come Around And Love Me.

N’Gonda has tweeked his band just a bit since his last trip through these parts. He’s got a new drummer and has added forth member to play percussion. Truth be told, the addition of the extra percussion fills out the sound of the band really nicely. I still would love to see/hear the band with some kind of horn section but I totally understand that touring with the addition of horns would certainly be economically unfeasable at this current stage in the band’s career and the size of the rooms they are playing.

Next up was the opening track off of 2018’s Talk About Mary EP, “Don’t You Remeber”, a slow burning crooner which Jalen and his immaculate falsetto absolutely NAILED. The set continued on a path very similar to the one which I’d seen back in September which was a bit disapponting I suppose but lets face it, the band doesn’t have that large a catalgue at this point and I’m sure Jalen doesn’t want to be dropping his own songs out of the setlist to add cover songs to the show. That’s not to say that there were no covers tossed into the set. We did get a reprise from September of Eddie Kendrick’s “Day By Day” as well a real nugget in Ruby Andrew’s “Didn’t I Fool You”.

After closing out the main set with a rousing version of “If You Don’t Want My Love” complete with a call and response chorus between N’Gonda and the rapurous crowd, Jalen would return solo to offer up a sweet version of “So Glad I Found You” before being rejoined on stage by the band for a harmonious rendition of his latest single “Illusions” which ultimately capped off a virtually perfect evening of slow sexy soul infected grooves.

Suffice it to say, if you’re a fan of Daptone style retro-soul, you should by all means be paying attention to Jalen N’Gonda. Unfortunately it looks like he and the band are heading off to tour Europe next week and I don’t see any additional Stateside shows on the agenda but no doubt Jalen and crew will be back and by all means you all should check ’em out.