Not many bands could get away with calling their album Genuine Negro Jig, but the Carolina Chocolate Drops are a case apart – a group of young African-Americans who perform antique jug band tunes with swaggering hip-hop attitude. The music's potency comes from the fact that the trio – fiddler Justin Robinson, banjo-player Rhiannon Giddens and multi-tasker Dom Flemons – got it from the source. The song introductions often pay tribute to 91-year-old black fiddler Joe Thompson, who they've adopted as muse, musical director and honorary grandfather. The sources of the band's sound are deep and complex. The Genuine Negro Jig was discovered in a 200-year-old manuscript by Dan Emmett, who first notated the southern anthem Dixie. Yet its mysterious, serpentine melody seems to contain Middle Eastern influences. It doesn't sound so far removed from the band's banjo-driven version of Blu Cantrell's R&B anthem Hit 'Em Up Style, either. The intriguing pedigree aside, it is the interaction between the members, swapping instruments and harmony lines on the fly, that makes them such a joy to watch.
Robinson has impressive gravitas whether doing his human beatbox impression or belching out bass lines from an enormous jug. Giddens, who trained as an opera singer, has the voice of an angel yet can make a kazoo sound filthy. Flemons has pioneered his own form of guitar gymnastics in which he sends the instrument spinning in the air without missing a beat. "He nearly always catches it," Giddens says. "I say nearly, because otherwise where's the thrill?"
At Bush Hall, London (08700 600 100), tonight, then touring.
