Malavita! Maravillosa en Devizes Arts Festival; Ardiendo Afro-Funk Latina!

Images by Gail Foster

I was looking forward to the grand finale of The Devizes Arts Festival with cherries on. Starter for ten; I’m yet to discover a subgenre of Caribbean or South American music I don’t instantly fall in love with, and it’s as rare a-find locally as diamond mines. Ergo, Malavita! marched up to my front door and banged loudly on it. And they didn’t hang around to ask me if I was coming out to play. No problemo when opportunity knocks, I had my dancing shoes on ready!

Upbeat from the off they blessed the Devizes Corn Exchange with their irresistible funky Latino blend, which soothed like reggae, swung like son cubano, bounced like bomba, and perhaps added smidgens of Brazilian samba, even Balkan into this melting pot of wonderful afro-funk.

To assume these guys flew in from Cuba or Puerto Rico would be justified, but on reflection there is definitely something western about the salsa which allows the throwing in of all these ingredients and stirring the pot to come out with a unique take effectively satisfying our western expectations. As in our pop, the vocals were soulful and delightfully expressed, and the subject matter of Malavita’s gorgeous and original repertoire seemed to be a glorified reflection on life’s guidance, thoughts and observations, yet subtle as the demanding danceable rhythms take priority. Story checks out, they’re from Devon, and their sound, their whole persona, is as beautiful as cream teas along the Jurassic Coastline…with added palm trees for an apt exotic effect!

Funk at the forefront, I was also reminded somewhat on the livelier bands on the Acid Jazz circuit of the mid-nineties; if the Brand New Heavies added some Latino spice you’d imagine it coming off something like this, for this eight-piece with blazing barefoot brass section, congos, and conventional drums, bass and lead guitar presented itself equally as professional and proficiently.

So proficient in fact, they can encore with their only recognisable cover, Britney Spears’ Toxic, under such an insatiable house-style, such a rework would push-pin me to the dancefloor! And therein is my summary, you see, for Malavita! ruined my original plan to scoot off to the Three Crowns for a momentary glimpse at Pewsey’s rock covers band Humdinger who after nineteen years on the local circuit finally made their Devizes debut, because the sound of Malavita! is the musical equivalent of that tractor beam which pulls the Millennium Falcon into the Death Star, I was stuck on the dancefloor for the duration.

For want of a less fanboy analogy, Jedi powers could not have prevented me from shaking my tailfeather, resistance was futile, Malavita are irresistibly danceable. That’s not opinion, that’s fact!

Leading me onto the trickier part, for saying how much I loved this, wracking my brain unable to think of something equally as cool as Malavita, was simple, but to suggest reasoning why the Corn Exchange wasn’t at full capacity as it has been with previous Devizes Arts Festival events this year, are manyfold. Possibly due to exhausted funds by the end, as there was so much choice this year, possibly a reflection on the natives personal taste, particularly those Arts Festival stalwarts, but for whatever the reason, they missed a thrilling evening of the single most sublime funky afro-fusion to bless Devizes, and to The Arts Festival organisers I thank you.

For those who were there, seats were empty anyway after quarter of an hour of this gorgeous, soulful sound, and we danced the evening away far too quickly!

As things stood, it reached its climax at ten, so I was able to sardine myself into the Crowns for a blast of rock covers after all, though with the taste of Lilly’s mango cider retained, I couldn’t shake off how totally awesome Malavita! were, and akin to Harry Belafonte’s Jump In the Line, I don’t imagine I ever will.

Being I don’t recall what I had for breakfast from one day to the next, I might need to correct myself if I searched our archives, but going out on a limb, I’d proclaim this to have been my gig of the year to-date; scorchio!

For more information about Malavita!

A massive well done and thank you to Devizes Arts Festival, as this year’s comes to a close but has shown diversity and quality throughout; we hold tight for next year! I would also like to thank our writers, Andy, Helen, Ben, and Ian, for their outstanding coverage of this year’s Arts Festival here in good ol’ Devizes, and to Gail Foster for allowing us to pinch her superb photos too!