Sunny. Yesterday my life was filled with rain. Sunny, you smiled at me and really eased the pain.
Tuff Times Never Lasts isn’t anything like a Bobby Hebb song but if distilled the motto ready for a fridge magnet everywhere on this album in a word is positivity. Listening to this slice of Afrobeat does ease the pain.
Not as militant or hard hitting as a Fela Kuti classic but not at all under conversation lite either, the horn arrangements are the meat in the sandwich and the strength of the nutritious sound.
Ingenious vamps simmer and glide and the trombone playing of Scottish jazzer Anoushka Nanguy that I recall playing the music of Joe Harriott within the ranks of the Peter Edwards conducted Nu Civilisation Orchestra in 2021 is a plus point.
Tunes are credited democratically to Ayo Salawu, Duane Atherley, Onome Edgeworth, Sheila Maurice-Grey, Tobi Adenaike-Johnson and Yohan Kebede. Lulu – not that Lulu: it makes you want to shout – is featured on ‘Idea 5’. Other featured artists are Azekel and Demae. The album was produced by Miles Clinton James. Best bits, oh definitely on a tune that deserves frequent replay – ‘Just Can’t Wait.’
- Tent tempted? Kokoroko are touring widely with dates coming up in Europe and the States. The band plays Brownswood label chief meejah panjandrum Gilles Peterson’s ravey davey friendly festival in a field We Out Here back home in Blighty in August.
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