The groove, or how not to be afraid of empty spaces: ADI OASIS at JazzMi

The feel of a soul singer, the pocket of a funket player, the look of a disco star, the fingers of a jazz musician; Parisian with Martinican origins and based in Brooklyn; plays bass, sings divinely and dances with style. How can you not love her?

Article by Alessandro Cebrian Cobos | Photo by Alessia Belotti

I confess it right away: I've had a soft spot for her, for her grooves and for her voice ever since they made me listen to Mango with KAMAUU. I thought, there you have it: my next favorite emerging artist. Things happened to him then, between collaborations, EPs, a change of stage name and a long tour to support his latest work Lotus Glow. I couldn't miss the rare opportunity to see Adeline Michèle Pétricien live, o Adi Oasis: bassist, singer. producer, now guest of the festival JazzMi at the Santeria Tuscany of Milan.

Glam and soul in one artist

She makes herself wait a bit: her musicians go on stage first, Ben Jamal Hoffmann on keyboards, Aylwin Steele from London to guitars, and Andrew McLean aka Druvvy to the battery. Hat with visor, round sunglasses, they have a placid and slightly nerdy appearance, but also a certain ironic smile that anticipates what is about to happen. In fact, Adi's look is anything but demure: very thin heels, black snakeskin pants, a bra with silver spirals and a hat that won't be able to stay in place and she will adjust periodically throughout the evening. But it doesn't matter, because yesterday the hat era began and there's no going back.

The latest album Lotus Glow

The beginning is soft, the progression of Get It Got It sets the soulful mood of this first part of the concert. This doesn't mean that Adi is sparing herself, on the contrary: these first songs already allow her to improve her voice a lot. His precision is surprising, the expressive but soft cut of his high notes.

He begins to wander around the stage in a feline and amused way, with small steps and hip movements that I don't understand if they follow the rhythm or dictate it. The ringed fingers move syncopated on the strings of the Fender bass. Adeline knows that when creating a groove, empty spaces are just as important as full spaces. The pauses between one phrase and the next create tension, and it will be the next notes that dissolve it; they create an expectation, precisely geographical, physical, of a space occupied in a certain way, and it will be the next fill that filling it with a new sequence will give you the chance to surprise yourself.

Adi knows this and gives his instrumentals room to breathe to build the groove. She finds a good balance, because she treats them like jazz pieces on which to create variations and solos, both for herself and for her stage companions, but without ever losing sight of the unity and identity of the songs. In other words: it deviates but does not get lost. He glides from one piece to the next, playing them one after the other in a medley. Every now and then she pauses and talks to us excitedly, uttering a few words in Italian: she is very tender in her shyness which vanishes, evaporates, as soon as she starts playing again.

Adi Oasis in concert at Santeria Toscana 31 in Milan photo by Alessia Belotti for www.rockon.it

His face transforms when he concentrates, as he gets into a groove he frowns and lowers the corners of his mouth. Somehow that tension then turns into enjoyment and a casual control of what happens on stage. She casts certain sardonic glances out of the corner of her eye that make me think of Prince, then laughs and comes to sing directly into the audience's cell phone cameras, playfully.

The songs to dance to and the covers

From Dumpalltheguns the temperature rises and the 4-on-the-floor rhythms of the drums become more frequent. Lotus Glow focused on r&b sounds, but in the background there are still the disco and house references of the first album. Gypsy Woman by Crystal Waters is a chance to put down the bass and do a little voguing while When I'm Alonewith an energy to Sylvesteris very fast and leads to an instrumental cover of Princewith her and Aylwin prancing back and forth across the stage. Adi comes out and is called back out to close with FourSixtythe atmospheric piece that opens and closes the latest album.

He says thanks, thanks a lot and comes to us, shakes our hand from the stage. When was the last time an artist moved me so much and then I was able to greet her by looking her in the eyes, shaking her hand? Maybe never, so how lucky to have been able to see Adi Oasis at this stage, before he becomes the next star of world soul/funk: he has all it takes to do so.