Results for "Cherise Adams-Burnett"

Cherise Adams-Burnett

Cassie Kinoshi: Letting The Sunshine In

by Chris May
April 8, 2024

Cassie Kinoshi, the acclaimed British composer and alto saxophonist, made her name as a founder member of the Afrobeat-inspired band Kokoroko and with her own ten-piece Seed Ensemble. Her work pushes social change, interrogating inequality and injustice, mainly through instrumental music, occasionally with lyrics, and always with invention and singularity. Seed's sophomore album, gratitude (International Anthem, ...

Cassie Kinoshi: Gratitude

by Chris May
March 23, 2024

Although she emerged on the British jazz scene as part of the cohort of saxophonists associated with London's post-2015 underground scene--among them Nubya Garcia, Binker Golding, Camilla George and Shabaka Hutchings--alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi has always stood somewhat apart. Her membership of the Afrobeat-inspired band Kokoroko placed her firmly in that underground scene, but her embrace ...

Dream Band

By Alex Hitchcock

Label: Fresh Sound New Talent
Released: 2021
Track listing: Wolf and Nina; Yeshaya; Intro; To Love Itself; Outro. FSTL; Move 37; Azalea; Embers; Overcome Any Obstacle with a Horse; Simulacra; And Then.

Nubiyan Twist: Freedom Fables

by Chris May
January 23, 2021

Guitarist Tom Excell's Nubiyan Twist is one of the more substantial groove-based fusion outfits orbiting the perimeter of Britain's alternative jazz world. The band combines soul, funk, modal jazz, hip hop, and West African Afrobeat and highlife in a dancefloor-friendly melange which is a whole lot of fun while also possessing some depth. Based in Leeds ...

Lift Every Voice And Sing: Twenty #BlackLives Albums That Matter

by Chris May
July 23, 2020

Jazz has been inextricably linked with social and political protest since at least the late 1930s, when Billie Holiday made famous the leftist songwriter and poet Abel Meeropol's “Strange Fruit." The song, which has a power to move that is undiminished by familiarity, likens the bodies of lynched African Americans to fruit hanging in trees.

New Jazz From London: Top 20 Paradigm Shifting Albums

by Chris May
June 1, 2020

After a lifetime trying to get on an equal footing with its American parent, British jazz has finally come of age. Since around 2015, a community of young, London-based musicians has forged a style which, while anchored in the American tradition, reflects the Caribbean and African cultural heritages of many of its vanguard players. The scene ...

Camilla George: Warrior Charge

by Chris May
February 13, 2020

In 2017, alto saxophonist and composer Camilla George's band was the support act for a Dee Dee Bridgewater gig at the London Jazz Festival. After George had finished her set, Bridgewater, who had been listening in the wings, came onstage, took the mike, and announced: “The world is safe because we have Camilla." Others in Cadogan ...

Chris May's Best Releases of 2019

by Chris May
December 7, 2019

The world may be going to hell in a handcart, but the year has been full of uplifting jazz. Here are ten of the best albums--the first seven newly recorded, the final three reissued or recently unearthed. Each one is the coyote's cojones. Yazz Ahmed Polyhymnia Ropeadope The eagerly ...

We Out Here: The Fast-Forward Evolution of British Jazz

by Chris May
July 25, 2019

After a lifetime in the shadow of its American parent, British jazz is finally coming of age. A community of young, London-based musicians is forging a style which, while anchored in the American tradition, reflects the modern Caribbean and African cultural heritages of the majority of its vanguard players. The music also addresses the race, class ...