In my lingering sojourn scampering across Nigeria and the United Kingdom to document the Christian music scene, Genesis Odeh’s artistry is a latest find that’s both illuminating and stimulating. The young Christian Gospel entertainer who wields the Saxophone as his favourite musical weapon laid all doubts to rest around his expertise, over the weekend, during the sophomore edition of the ‘Victory After Praise’ concert, organised by Ezekiel Olayemi. Odeh, professionally known as Genesis Sax, performed a medley, alongside other instrumentalists and backing vocalists, electrifying the atmosphere at the RCCG Winners Place, Aldershot, UK.

Odeh’s opening riffs set the tone for the performance, ushering the backing choral vocals with riffs of melancholia, sobriety and, to a degree, relief. When Christian worship music starts to feel like a pain relief balm, like it did at this concert, one can tell that its performers really understand the ingredients for a live-groove catharsis!

Throughout the performance, one could not help but notice a few pleasure points that showcased Odeh’s maestro. The most captivating find would be his seamless synergy with other instrumentalists, and even singers, that coloured his ensemble-playing with hues of expertise and experience. Generally, his tonal synergy with the piano, drums and the backing vocals kept the record breathing with the right cadence that sparked a clean contrast till the end.

With the entire medley flourishing with a mix of songs sung in Igbo, Yoruba, English and Pidgin, Odeh’s saxophone wore its multilingual hat that evening as he interpreted the music, boosting the song’s arrangement with his exciting brassy tunes. While the entire medley performance was composed of actual melodic covers, Odeh’s apt interpretation injected vibrance and intrigue as he finessed his embouchure, among other techniques.

The performance was a jive of mostly energetic tempos, laced with soothing solo improvs and breaks.
Odeh’s melodic phrasing also steps into the spotlight during this performance, as his sharp grace notes, which also serve as transitional devices, enlivened the rendition. His clever use of pentatonic scales also embellished his performance with sharper intrigue, reducing the tension within terse parts of the performance like the refrain on the third track, “You Have Done So Much For Me”.

Another core highlight within Odeh’s interpretation is his masterful use of the looping technique to create a fill within the most terse parts of the performance, especially on the song “Under The Canopy.” While this is still a largely undershowcased technique across sax renditions, Odeh’s audacious foray succeeded in keeping the groove enlivened and tightly paced.

The catharsis within the entire performance, alongside Odeh’s standout articulation, kept stretching with possibilities as the performance snowballed into a dance jive towards the outro. Momentarily, Odeh’s performance was punctuated with a dose of dance steps that charged his delivery and also allowed for percussive improvisations that further bolstered enjoyability.

With a special shoutout to his clever expressions, Odeh’s seamless transitions also helped shape the cohesive feel of the medley; as each song felt purposefully strung for anti-climactic dramatic effect, in spite of their solo strengths. The outro, “This Kind God Another One No Dey (Samuel Folabi cover)”, bows as an epitome of careful cadence, with Odeh’s stellar call-and-response phrasing closing the curtains on the captivating performance that night.

The drawbacks with his performance radiated mostly around his articulation, especially with flat notes and outstretched breath pauses glitching the performance around the midpoint of his rendition, especially on the “I Have Decided To Follow Jesus” song in the medley. Nonetheless, Odeh’s charismatic musicality returns the performance to a smooth sail, keeping it groovy-yet-introspective throughout the 20-minute performance.

In all, Odeh’s astounding saxophonist expression make a case for elevated affinity towards methodicalness in music; keeping the jive simple-yet-complex, looping and pedalling with the right motifs and switching up the ante with warmer, more dramatic transitional cues, improvisations, and, overall, phrasing.

Genesis Odeh, better known as Genesis Sax is a Nigerian-born contemporary Christian gospel musician and saxophonist with over a decade of professional experience. A man of many talents, he also doubles as a Stage director and Actor for the You Me Bum Bum Train theatre troupe, in London, where he’s presently based.