by JOHNSTON FARROW

Vanessa Rodrigues Soul Project
July 20, Festival Tent, Spring Garden & Queen, 8pm, $20.

Every year at the Atlantic Jazz Festival there's one show that stands out as the cutting-edge performance - one that forces audiences to think outside the box. The Vanessa Rodrigues Soul Project might hold that honour in 2006.

Formed by 27-year-old Hammond organ virtuoso Rodrigues in Montreal, the Soul Project takes cues from the funked-up, hip-hop organ trio Soulive. The Edmonton-raised Rodrigues leads guitarist Olivier Renee-de-Cotret, drummer Jean-Pierre Levesque and DJ Killa-Jewel through a groove-filled set that's sure to get the festival tent on their feet. Although they are all established jazz and soul musicians, it's Rodrigues's organ that takes centre stage.

"Maybe it's because I'm small and I'm a little girl and I have a complex, but it has a huge sound and it's so powerful," she says about her love of the Hammond organ. "The whole band has to go with you. I wouldn't say I'm on a power trip - it always has to be musical and it always has to make sense."

One of the more interesting elements to the band is talented DJ Killa-Jewel, AKA Julie Fainer, an upcoming turntablist who performed with Buck 65 at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Rodrigues immediately knew she wanted to work with the DJ when she witnessed her blow away all the other artists at a friend's local turntable jam session.

"The DJ stuff is interesting because it's not like I have her scratching to fill in the blanks," Rodrigues says. "She's actually playing the melodies with us and more. She's a musician in the group as opposed to a texture."

Regardless who's playing with her, curiosity is piqued simply by Rodrigues's MySpace bio, which describes her as "a big, funky black man with a huge afro, trapped in the body of a petite brunette woman."

"It's a little more special than playing at a bar," she says of her excitement about playing Jazz Fest. "It's a little more formal, although it doesn't feel stuck up. It seems like a bigger deal than a show you'd play at a small club - it's a different energy."

- Johnston Farrow
http://www.thecoast.ca/

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