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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Lorikeet, Woven, Babel ***1/2
You can’t quite categorise the fine plumage of this interesting folk-improv band. Lorikeet hail from Frome in Somerset where this was recorded at the Bert Jansch studio a couple of years ago and just released by the resurgent Babel.
‘My Mother Is A Leader’ according to the band who formed four years ago is “a song about mothers stepping into their power as leaders.”
Written by Lorikeet’s English singer-guitarist Rosanna Schura known for her work with the Andrews Sisters-loving close harmony act the Puppini Sisters, the band also has American cellist Heather Truesdall best heard on the improvisation called ‘Fell Line’ and English drummer Dave Smith, known for his work with Robert Plant.
Under the latter name English folk rockers Steeleye Span recorded the song on their second album Please to See the King (1971).
Lorikeet’s treatment is quite a bit jollier! And overall the humour on this bucolic clebration is upbeat rather than doom laden.
Woven has several improvisations that hook in my interest. Truesdall is quite Shirley Smart-like on ‘Unspool.’
But in the end I liked Schura’s ‘Dandelion Seeds’ even more. She is quite Sandy Denny like on this.
There’s a 1920s song interpreted called ‘Sugar Baby’ a lament of a henpecked man that has a chorus line: “I’ll rock the cradle when you’re gone.”
What else? There’s jazz trumpet from Laura Jurd in a ‘St James Infirmary’ vein on Schura piece ‘Hot Slow June’. Other guests include violinist Theo May on 3 tracks.
Confined-to-my loom song ‘Wee Weaver’ is also here.
Again Steeleye Span interpreted this. It appeared on their quirkily entitled Ten Man Mop or Mr Reservoir Butler Rides Again album.
The late great Galway singer Dolores Keane who died in March also sang the song in the 80s in an even better version on an album of hers with John Faulkner called Sail Óg Rua [‘Young Red-Haired Sally’].
Also good on Woven is a take on the mid 19th century folk song ‘Cuckoo’ that the great Hastings born folk singer Shirley Collins – now in her nineties – sang in the 1950s on Sweet England.
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Jarrod Lawson, Just Let it, Dome ***1/2
Kind of inventing his own genre building block by building block, soul singer songwriter American Jarrod Lawson is worth it even if you don’t happen to be a hardcore soul fan or listen to 21st century R&B much. The catchy riffery of the George Benson-esque ‘Laugh at Yourself’ verges on smooth but is the best track and I liked the duet with Raquel “Sweet Side” Rodriguez on ‘Next Move’.
But what’s here is mostly quite samey, more about a sustained vibe where generous vamps rule and there’s a certain dipping into hip hop and more gospel soul territory along the way without being too deep about it. Lawson has a really great voice, sort of Bobby Womack-like, throaty and emotive, a strong feel and groove to what he’s about. There’s a lot to like here without it being a truly special album.
You might ask how do you get to be truly special? There is no magic formula. Any fule kno. But the songs need to be more memorable beyond the silky licks and that fine voice and the fact that warm love is agreeably present everywhere. More variety, different production values maybe and from my point of view more or even some jazz in it is a must.
An American, Lawson has had 2 studio albums so far, Be The Change (2020) which is better because of the jazzier feel on ‘Embrace What We Are’ and soul organ flavour to ‘Evalee’ and Jarrod Lawson (2014) that has the stunning ‘Everything I Need’. The UK radio station Jazz FM championed Lawson early on. Collaborators here also include a producer called Carrtoons, and singers Eric Roberson & Allen Stone plus rappers JSWISS and Don Smith
Quite a few of the tracks are skippable but ‘Laugh at Yourself,’ featuring Roberson isn’t. You may know his cover of Robert Palmer’s Double Fun (1978) era ‘Every Kinda People‘ featuring smooth jazz icon Jeff Lorber. And do check out the dude’s ‘Sweeter Than You‘ where he duets with the wonderful Avery Sunshine on Roberson’s Beautifully All Over the Place released back in March. While pretty decent Just Let It isn’t really made for jazz lovers, now is it, no matter how much you stretch the so called “rules” they teach you in at even the most switched on jazz music college. That fact doesn’t impinge on digging the record at all. Unless you are a very stubborn listener.
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Wynton Marsalis and Vince Giordano, The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong, Blue Engine **** recommended
Trad jazz doesn’t often get a look in among these crumpled, well thumbed pages. Maybe it should more with great releases like this and another earlier in the year, Moon Beans.
But like another girl, another planet “I think I’m on another world with you” on this one as the level of traddiness on a scale of 1 to 10 is a hundred! Recorded in late 2012 at Dizzy’s Club in New York The Wonderful Word of Louis Armstrong is the third release in Blue Engine’s Jazz Call for Freedom series – see a recent review of We The People that’s part of these chin strokers themed very loosely around ideas of democracy in America.
Wynton says about Louis Armstrong: “Even a cursory examination of Pops’ example encourages us to chart our own unique paths through the ever changing landscape of American possibilities. Momentum, swing, was Louis Armstrong’s business. In that, he is without peer.”
Players here with Wynton are trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso, trombonist Chris Crenshaw, reedists Victor Goines and Vince Giordano (who plays the rare bass sax and tuba), violinist Andy Stein, banjo player/guitarist Ken Salvo, pianist Dan Nimmer, bassist Carlos Henriquez and drummer Ali Jackson. It’s joyous stuff.
- Wynton returns to Ireland with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for a run of Dominic Reilly promoted dates this summer in Dublin and Limerick City after a successful first ever appearance on the auld sod last year.
See the marlbank gig guide for links
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