Incognito at the Jazz Cafe in Camden is easily one of the best gigs I have been to this year. Whilst I may be forced to admit that soul music isn’t my normal genre preference, I found myself really appreciating everything they had to offer.

The venue itself could be charitably described as “intimate” and the band members on stage were as tightly packed in as the audience. From left to right we had the brass section consisting of a sax/flute player, a trumpet/cornet player (who looked like a bank manager by day) and a trombonist… then Bluey on guitar and in front of him the “guest mike”, drums at the back and 3 vocalists in front. (Gail Evans, Imaani and Tony Momrelle) then Bass guitarist and lead guitarist and then the keyboards. I counted 5(!) keyboards and only one keyboardist who manically moved from synth to synth throughout the evening. Each musician was given a solo spot throughout the evening and yet this felt very natural and unplanned – even the drum solo! One bit that stood out was lead guitarist Tony Remy driving a vocoder with his guitar and just scatting vocals over the top. I’ve never heard anything like it! Amazing stuff.

The vocalists blew me away, their range and expression was astounding. The harmonies were pant-wettingly brilliant. Guest vocalist Joy Rose was a real highlight for me, and Tony Momrelle clearly has Donny Hathaway as an influence – he sounds amazing.

I've always been of the opinion that Soul and Funk is music best experienced live and Incognito do not disappoint, rarely have I been to a gig where I felt like a true participant in creating the experience rather than just a passive audience member waiting to be entertained. The audience itself was comprised of a very eclectic mix of people, representatives of every nation, race, colour, creed, age and gender abound and all joined together in grooving away and singing "Always There".

After the gig Bluey was astoundingly generous with his time and people queued up to say hello, shake his hand and get their CDs autographed (no quick feltpen squiggle here – Bluey writes you an essay!) and he was happy to pose for photos and chat in a very unrushed way with anyone who wanted to.

All in all one unforgettable evening. 10 out of 10.