Nik West, Edinburgh review - 'West wore her virtuosity with a shimmer of sequins'

The glamorous Americans are in town. Funk bassist Nik West and her band were the hot ticket of the Jazz Festival – that’s what a Prince association and a Bootsy Collins endorsement can do for you. Happily, funkily, expectations were met.

This was a fun and flamboyant show with West looking as good as she sounded, wearing her virtuosity with a shimmer of sequins. A heavy funk rock intro gave way to a bubblegum cheer of a tune with a lithe rootsy backdrop. West quickly established her female Prince credentials on a jam which sounded mighty like Kiss with a dash of Rick James and some Bootsy bottom end, then seamlessly switched from funk to rock and back with lots of ear candy en route.

She gave us the sound of Forbidden Fruit – a taut funk bassline overlaid with lingering organ – but was less convincing as a love balladeer on a lengthy testifying number about the demented lengths a woman will go to for her man. On the plus side, the audience also got to hear what love sounded like on the drums – a free rolling solo with some skittering fills, in case you were wondering – and then again on every other instrument.

West was obviously the star of the show but also a democratic bandleader, stepping aside to let her backing singer Teneia Sanders take the spotlight on her own old school soul number Beautiful Mess. While Sanders shone as a singer and songwriter, West aced as a performer and MC.

Much of the second set was about wanting or getting the funk, incorporating tight covers of George Clinton’s Give Up the Funk and Sly Stone’s Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin) but also some hefty rock riffola on The Beatles’ Come Together and a bona fide cover of Kiss, which was fun and flirty rather than dirty and dangerous.