Home » Jazz Articles » Soweto Kinch
Jazz Articles about Soweto Kinch
Soweto Kinch, Theo Croker, Julian Lage, And More
by Colin Muirhead
Featuring music by acts performing in North East England soon and showcasing new releases, with tracks by Soweto Kinch, Theo Croker, Zoë Gilby, Knats, Julian Lage, and more. Playlist Soweto Kinch “A People With No Past" from The New Emancipation (Soweto Kinch Recordings) 00:00 Theo Croker “prelude 3" from Dream Manifest (Dom Recs) 08:54 Joe Webb “Curve Ball" from Hamstrings and Hurricanes (Edition Records) 11:11 Zoe Gilby “Red City" from Twelve Stories (33Jazz Records) 14:12 Knats “Adaeze" from ...
Continue ReadingSultan Stevenson: El Roi
by Neil Duggan
Following on from his modern but classic-sounding debut, Faithful One (Whirlwind Recordings, 2023), Sultan Stevenson, a London-born pianist of West Indian descent, brings us his second album, El Roi. The title comes from a term in the Hebrew Bible for God of Sight, with faith and identity serving as the driving concepts behind Stevenson's compositions. This album employs the same group format as its predecessor with a core piano trio with bassist Jacob Gryn and drummer Joel Waters, ...
Continue ReadingPaul Dunmall: Bright Light A Joyous Celebration
by John Sharpe
While the opener suggests a blowing session from veteran British saxophonist Paul Dunmall, as good as that promises to be, the reality is better still. Joining him is a starry cast drawn from succeeding generations, with the addition of American drummer Hamid Drake. With the drummer touring in the UK. Dunmall took the opportunity to renew a friendship that stretches back almost two decades, one first heard on the fiery Peace And Joy (Slam, 2006). Alongside them in the studio ...
Continue ReadingTomos Williams: Cwmwl Tystion II: Riot!
by Ian Patterson
Billowing clouds of black smoke dominate a blood-red backdrop. From the cover alone, it is clear that trumpeter/composer Tomos Williams has something extra-musical to say. The Welsh language project name--Cwmwl Tystion means 'witness'--and the English title-- Riot!--writ large, expel any doubt. Inspired by events both famous and infamous in Welsh history--workers revolts, pogroms and race riots--this sprawling one-hour suite is a musical manifesto for a more balanced perspective on Welsh identity/nationalism. It is a subject close to Williams' ...
Continue ReadingSamuel Blaser: Routes
by Chris May
The Jamaican trombonist Don Drummond (1934-1969), the inspiration for Routes, was in certain respects a mid-twentieth Jamaican parallel of the New Orleans cornetist Buddy Bolden (1877-1931). Bolden pioneered jazz in the US, Drummond in Jamaica. Both achieved mythic proportions during their lifetimes and both their legends endure. Both, tragically, spent their final years in what were then called insane asylums. One difference between the two musicians is that, while no recording of Bolden has survived, if indeed ...
Continue ReadingSoweto Kinch's 'White Juju Deconstructed' at SFJAZZ Center
by Harry S. Pariser
Soweto Kinch SFJAZZ Center, San Francisco, CA White Juju Deconstructed May 19, 2023 “It fascinates me how we're all acquainted with an unspoken architectural and symbolic language of power.' How do these monuments or myths affect how we see ourselves as a nation? Naming the piece “White Juju" deliberately inverted ideas of the 'savage' or primitive. Perhaps the bizarre fetishes and obsessions of a cult religion are more visible in modern Britain than third world ...
Continue ReadingSoweto Kinch: White Juju
by Chris May
Adding politically charged spoken-word lyrics to instrumental jazz needs to be done with care, because if sloganeering is tedious to listen to once, it becomes unbearable on repeated exposure. The record containing it drops off one's playlist. Counterproductive or what? The British saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch, however, has pulled the trick off many times. From Conversations With The Unseen (Dune, 2003) through to The Black Peril (Soweto Kinch Recordings, 2019), Kinch has made the combination work because of the ...
Continue Reading
