Have a look at this dynamic, positive video by Rachel Wang newly up on YouTube. Filmed in London’s Wandsworth district saxophonist, vocalist, guitarist, Kaidi Akinnibi reflects on how his early experiences shaped his creative path and identity as a musician.
It also focuses on his connection with World Heartbeat, a community music space in Nine Elms where he leads masterclasses.
The video’s narrative emphasises the importance of community-led spaces such as World Heartbeat in nurturing young talent and making music more accessible.
The video is part of a series called 1000londoners.com
From South London, Akinnibi – known for his work with Blue Lab Beats and Mark Kavuma’s The Banger Factory – operates in areas that blend jazz with electronica, hip-hop, R&B, Afrobeat and alt. rock.
He has also worked with nu jazz star Tom Misch and post-punks Black Midi.
Under his own name Akinnibi released the single ‘Texas’ inspired by a trip to Austin and there’s a debut Like in Dreams in the offing.
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Lizz Wright and Kenny Banks Sr, Nearness, Blues & Greens/Candid Records ****
An album to raise you up
The strongest element of Nearness is the more gospel influenced material.
But you could argue that on everything she does whether singing classic standards or spirituals that side of things is always there with Lizz Wright.
Produced by long-time guitarist Chris Bruce, Nearness thrives on quiet moments, hanging phrases, a certain unforced momentousness that begins right from the first notes.
The might as well be title track ‘The Nearness of You’ comes first. A song that goes back to 1937 and Hoagy Carmichael and Ned Washington; Carmichael was one of the great American songwriters, responsible for tunes such as ‘Stardust’ and ‘Georgia on My Mind’. Wright, 46, who first burst through with the remarkable Salt is from the southern American state of Georgia.
Originally written for a film project that was never made it eventually found its way into the mainstream through the Glenn Miller Orchestra, with vocalist Ray Eberle, whose 1940 recording became the first major hit version.
The lyric is unusually intimate and understated. The song gradually moved from popular music into the jazz repertoire during the 1940s and 1950s. Sarah Vaughan recorded it as early as 1949, and her performances show how naturally the tune lends itself to sophisticated jazz phrasing. Charlie Parker also recorded it in 1951 with Woody Herman’s orchestra.
So you begin here with a very old song but in a certain sense the album goes a lot further back given a certain strong biblical undertow and this album as a whole has a timelessness to it.
Regular readers will know that I reckon the Wright and Banks treatment of ‘Amazing Grace’ – a hymn Wright has interpreted before – is our track of the year. Nearness too is in the marlbank list of top vocals albums of the year to date right at the top.
Betty Carter I started thinking of a bit during my time listening to the record earlier today. That’s not surprising when you come to ‘Jazz Ain’t Nothing But Soul’ the Norman Mapp song that Carter did in 1960 on The Modern Sound of Betty Carter. Banks’ accompaniment is quite strict and the emphatic side of his style makes me think of Hank Jones a bit here and in other places on the album when I start listening to piano more.
There’s a joyousness to ‘Hold On’ aka ‘Hold On Just a Little While Longer’ a classic traditional African American spiritual focused on endurance, faith and perseverance. The song served as a work song and a spiritual anchor during slavery and the Civil Rights Movement, encouraging believers to press forward through trials. I know the song from Bobby McFerrin and the Kuumba Singers’ version which is stunning.
Banks comes into his own – and again I am thinking of Hank Jones a bit – on Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein’s ‘All the Things You Are’. I go off to hear HJ’s own version captured live one time for a while.
Jesse Greer’s cuddle and woo late-1920s song ‘Just You, Just Me’ with finger clicks is lovely. It was first recorded by Ukulele Ike and Johnny Hartman did a version in the 1950s. But it’s impossible not to think of Nat King Cole when you hear this lovely version. It was on After Midnight (Capitol, 1957).
Wright and Banks include their own song the romantic ‘Hold Me’ that fits in well especially coming after ‘Just You, Just Me’ which is in the smoochier portion of the album.
Banks switches to the organ on the biggest holy roller number which is terrific, the claplong feast that is Clara Ward’s ‘How I Got Over’. We are deep in Mahalia Jackson teritory here – one of the greatest gospel singers ever. Banks and Wright do her proud.
‘Deep River’ also here is beautiful – I think of Marian Anderson’s version as the song was a signature staple of that great classical singer’s concert repertoire.
Nearness also includes a new stunning a cappella version of ‘Circling’ the Wright/Bruce/Toshi Reagon/Lynne Earls/Justin Hicks co-write that figured on Shadow a few years ago. That version is above. It is a song that on that album tapped the folkier side of Wright’s artistry that you get more on albums of this incredible singer’s like The Orchard. Here it is in another realm – where she loses herself once again “between the rhythm and the reason.”
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Composer • Lyric
Birmingham Jazz hits the nifty 50s
Golden days: Birmingham Jazz Orchestra
There is a certain narrative that goes along the lines: everything that happens emanates from London and somehow jazz has just been discovered by the TikTok generation there and all is well in the world. Patently untrue as 50 years of activity in Birmingham, England’s 2nd city in population terms and forever a Cinderella to the capital often inexplicably in cultural terms, celebrated soon goes some way to demonstrate. Local jazz luminaries whose fame has spread include Dave O’Higgins, Soweto Kinch, Xhosa Cole and Shabaka and a busy calendar of gig promotion activity is championed by local volunteers and has been since time immemorial. The local scene or scenes if you prefer as there are quite a few in the city even has a top indie jazz label just as good as any of the London ones in Stoney Lane.
The anniversary itself dates to September 1976, when Birmingham Jazz presented its first concert, Barbara Thompson’s Paraphernalia, at Birmingham’s Grand Hotel. The organisation has continued to promote live jazz and related music in the city, presenting international and national artists while creating opportunities for local musicians and students.
The centrepiece of the October anniversary event is the Birmingham Jazz Orchestra, which will premiere a new five-movement suite commissioned by Birmingham Jazz. Each movement has been written by a Birmingham based composer and draws on musical influences associated with one of the organisation’s five decades.
Ed Puddick’s opening movement looks to the jazz-rock of the 1970s, including the music of Mike Gibbs, Neil Ardley and Ian Carr. Alicia Gardener-Trejo’s contribution reflects UK jazz of the 1980s, while Jonathan Silk’s movement takes inspiration from the more developed compositional language of writers such as Kenny Wheeler in the 1990s. Dave Sear looks towards the expanding musical influences of the early 2000s, with Alex Astbury’s final movement drawing on all five decades for a contemporary conclusion.
The evening begins at 6.30pm in the Eastside Jazz Club with a support set by the Zeb Murphy Band, comprising Royal Birmingham Conservatoire musicians. The Birmingham Jazz Orchestra performs in the Recital Hall at 7.45pm, followed by a student-led jam session in the Eastside Jazz Club at 9pm.
So then local promoters Birmingham Jazz will mark its 50th anniversary on Thursday 8 October with a special concert at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, part of a wider programme celebrating five decades of live jazz promotion in the city.
Over its 50 years Birmingham Jazz has presented artists including Ronnie Scott, Jan Garbarek, Humphrey Lyttelton, Mike Gibbs, Stan Tracey and Abdullah Ibrahim, alongside programmes supporting musicians from the region. Its history also includes commissions, education projects and opportunities for students and emerging musicians. Birmingham even had its own Ronnie Scott’s branch at one time – but that is an entirely different story best heard over a few sherbets. Probably. But hey: Birmingham jazz – stuff of legends in whichever venue you wish to mark the half century in. The organisation also regularly puts on top gigs at the real ale friendly 1000 Trades and there is a strong jazz faculty operating as an incubator at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire which is part of Birmingham City University (who run the Eastside jazz club).
- Tickets for the 8 October concert are priced at £5, £12 and £15. Further details
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