The Betty Davis show at Hero’s Welcome with Mary Ancheta
The keyboardist's 9-piece band, billed the MAQkestra, was "Hangin' Out" on Main Street Oct. 17
"I think the '70s are my era, y'all," Krystle Dos Santos said from the stage of Mary Ancheta's show at Hero's Welcome on October 17, 2024. Ancheta led a six-piece band plus three featured vocalists; that night, for Infidels Jazz's Social Music series at the Main Street venue, she presented songs by R&B-funk artist Betty Davis (1944-2022).
Ancheta is a session keyboardist and composer-for-the-screen. Just 24 hours after this show, she played the Shadbolt Centre in the band of musician-storyteller and Sojourners member Khari Wendell McClelland. Previously, Ancheta had a notable opening set at the 2023 jazzfest, playing the Queen Elizabeth Theatre before BADBADNOTGOOD.
Social Music, held monthly at Hero's, has grown into one of the marquee Infidels Jazz series. This edition sold out like some other ones that have drawn my attention. The music last Thursday was funky, defiant, and brash but also fun and chill: not an all-out barnburner, but certainly energetic. The Betty Davis song title "Hangin' Out" epitomized the vibe as the singers revved-up the first set's momentum with that number.
A dance floor formed at the back of the house by the booths. Not having one in front of the stage, where the low tables and chairs always are at this venue, felt like a missed opportunity. Nevertheless, the band's excitement to deliver the vibe was palpable. "I hoped to create a space where the players can improvise and have their voice heard," Ancheta told me after the show.
"I think about how Betty Davis was an innovator and how influential she was in the world of music and fashion," Ancheta said. "I purposely chose people that embody this energy. I hoped to create music that would do her music justice."
"We did one rehearsal a couple of days before the show, as I wanted to keep the music raw and spontaneous, as for me Betty Davis' music is just that."
Ancheta's instrumental band, billed as the MAQkestra for Mary Ancheta Quartet, packed a lot of Guilt & Co. attitude into Hero's. Two of her quartet's members on record, saxophonist Dominic Conway and bassist Matt Reid, were joined by drummer & Guilt-man extraordinaire Paul Clark. (Trent Otter is the drummer on record.) Ancheta recently led the quartet on a tour, where they surely developed more of the casual chemistry they brought to Hero's.
Feven Kidane on trumpet and Tristan Paxton on guitar rounded out the instrumentalists. Paxton dug into the blues language; you'd know him as a bit of a shredder even on warm-toned jazz gigs, so hearing him lay into a Stratocaster for funky riffs was spot-on. Kidane contributed jovially, keeping the mood lifted way up for the musicians and audience alike. Her high notes, jazz solos, and blasts of excitement in this funky context evoked Roy Hargrove.
Of the three featured singers, Dos Santos – known for her long-running gig called Underneath the Harlem Moon at Guilt & Co. – was the most content to ride the wave, a consummate pro and team player. She sang, however, with the furthest-forward tone and carried some of the edgier songs. Dawn Pemberton was in her element with a clear, soulful tone and became the de facto leading emcee among them, standing front and centre and doing the most banter. Dawn plays a mean tambourine.
Leo D.E. Johnson, perhaps the least-familiar singer to the jazz fans in the house, was the dynamic firebrand who shone with strength and courage. On top of that, Johnson added the undeniable morale of clapping and dancing all night to every other performer's moments, standing out as one to watch for future appearances on the scene.
Ancheta’s setlist flowed from what she envisioned for her bandmates’ individual traits. "I thought about each of their strengths as an artist and I tried to pick the songs that I thought would best suit them," she said.
In addition to the music from two of Davis' albums – 1974's They Say I'm Different and 1975's Nasty Gal – Ancheta included two songs from a compilation called The Columbia Years 1968-1969. The compilation came out in 2016. "It makes me consider what Betty Davis might be doing now if she was still with us and making music," Ancheta said of the release's recency.
The ensemble felt crammed onto the Hero's stage, which got me thinking about bigger ones that they could all fit on. Nobody puts together a project like this to play it only once. Ancheta says she'd love to hit at "the Pearl, the Hollywood Theatre, or the Fox" and even "at a festival as well". To that list – in which the festival could easily be the 40th Vancouver International Jazz – I will speculatively add the Rickshaw, whose head honcho Mo Tarmohamed was in attendance after Tim Reinert shared a September 25 Facebook photo of the venue with the caption, "Venue scouting."
I didn't even mention yet that Ancheta sang a lead vocal. Here's everything the band played – a couple set-opening overtures from other parts before diving into Davis' catalogue:
