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Balimaya Project: When The Dust Settles
by Chris May
Formed in 2019 by London-based drummer and percussionist Yahael Camara Onono, the sixteen-piece Balimaya Project blends traditional West African Mandé music with modal jazz and other sounds out of modern Black London. The ensemble's closest comparator, albeit at some remove, is the veteran Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab who, in the 1980s, were hugely popular at home and abroad. But Baobab's repertoire, although it included Mandé folk music, was based chiefly on the Wolof tradition. There is more ...
read moreKinetika Bloco: Legacy
by Chris May
Legacy features some of the London jazz scene's leading players, among them tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia, trumpeters Claude Deppa, Mark Kavuma and Sheila Maurice-Grey, trombonist Nathaniel Cross and tubaist Theon Cross. As you would anticipate, there is much great jazz to be heard on the album, and along the way it bears witness to community spirit and the power of music to do good. It was recorded to celebrate the achievements of the music charity Kinetika Bloco ...
read moreNathaniel Cross: Deep Vibrations
by Chris May
At the time of writing in summer 2021, there are a number of super-talented musicians on London's alternative jazz scene who deserve far more prominence than they have yet to achieve. Some of these players have been ill-served by their record labels. Others have only recorded as sidepersons. A few have chosen to confine their music-making to off-radar community settings. One or two have their careers on hold while they combat private demons. One such under-recognized musician ...
read moreNathaniel Cross: The Description Is Not The Described
by Chris May
Trombonist Nathaniel Cross is a key presence on London's alternative jazz scene, just like his brother, Theon Cross, who plays tuba in Shabaka Hutchings' Sons Of Kemet. Until now, however, Nathaniel has probably been better known among his fellow musicians than with the general public, for he has been most active behind the scenes as a session musician and arranger. Among other major names Cross has worked with are his longtime friend, drummer and producer Moses Boyd, on whose Mercury ...
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