Moses Boyd photo: Wikipedia
There’s a lot of gospel around from jazz artists this year – I liked Ron Carter’s album with Ricky Dillard in this vein and Lizz Wright’s with Kenny Banks Senior. And I like this too. But It’s quite different to these just mentioned – they are far more American, this is far more British – and from the way I first discovered Moses Boyd which was in the band of Zara McFarlane, the Sarah Vaughan influenced singer who appears among the personnel here. But I wasn’t keen on Boyd’s Mercury nominated Dark Matter.
As part of Binker and Moses, the Dem Ones sound was more out there Coltrane and Rashied Ali. I liked that period of his career more.
Boyd leads the Songs for Sinners approach with a beat that is chunky, rugged and you get a sort of juggernaut motion to the best bits.
The album – big on religiosity but not at all off putting given this – features a rapturous cast of primary vocalists and spoken word artists, including Raelle on ‘War’, Shantéh on ‘More To Life’, Zara McFarlane on ‘Say Yeah’, and Amber-Simone on ‘Criticise’, alongside a spoken word performance by an artist who goes under the moniker Rarely Always.
The vocal depth is further enhanced by several choirs and backing vocalists. And the choral community feel is far more interesting than the solo voices. These include the Earlham Primary School Kids Choir, the Kitchen Choir made up of family and friends, and backing vocalists Emily Holligan, Stephanie Oyerinde, Rebecca Thomas, Christina Matovu and Emmanuel Onafowokan.
‘I believe’ is the best track by a mile and goes to the heart of the matter
The instrumental lineup brings together a stellar group of musicians. Guitars and bass are handled by Artie Zaitz, Nikos Ziarkas, Jihad Darwish, Neil Charles (who was on the original and best Empirical record) and Lawrence Insula. Keyboards, organs, and synthesizers are played by Niji Adeleye, Gavin Powell, Greg Foat, Charlie Stacey and Renato Paris. The horn section features saxophonists Quinn Oulton and the much acclaimed Donovan Haffner, while additional rhythm is provided by percussionists Oli Savill and Patrick Cameron, alongside drummer Joshua McKenzie, also known as MckNasty.
Boyd was cosmic in recent times on an album of interesting Isle of Wight person Foat’s called Opening Time, reviewed above. Darwish was also on that infectiously vamp ‘n’ riff-groove laden recording which is far more jazz and where there is no gospel thread.
Described as a first album in 6 years I neither love nor hate Songs for Sinners but certainly I admire the approach and what Moses is about. And it is a new beginning that hopefully will help bring in part this incredibly accomplished drummer back on top – where he belongs before too long.
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