Kokoroko: Tuff Times Never Last

Kokoroko's sophomore album is cool. Cool as the other side of the pillow, cool like floating on top of the deep blue ocean, cool like the Fonz.

Kokoroko may be properly classified within the "Afrobeat" jazz subgenre which mixes West African rhythms with jazz harmony. Its sound also includes a heavy dose of "highlife," traditional Ghanaian music that adopted instruments from colonial military bands. It was brought to America by jazz great Randy Weston in his 1963 album Highlife (Colpix).

Tuff Times Never Last is introduced with trilling, electronic sounds leading into the smooth "Never Lost," as if we dropped into a parallel dimension with Sade singing in the clubs of Accra. This leads into the album's single "Sweetie," a mid-tempo, polyrhythmic drink of water filled with horns and joy. "Closer To Me" features a Fender Rhodes fading between left and right channels and a quavering synthesizer, followed by the charming vocal jazz of "My Father In Heaven."

The middle of the album features three collaborations with LULU. ("Idea 5"), Azekel ("Three Piece Suit"), and, the most successful, "Time and Time" with Demae. "Da Du Dah" brings funk rhythms and smooth horns as a soundtrack to a charming video that finds the band meeting its younger selves on the playgrounds of London. The album wraps up with "Together We Are," "Just Can't Wait," and "Over/Reprise," featuring a repeated bass and guitar figure followed by a wind ensemble that gives way to a trippy synthesizer.

Tuff Times Never Last's chill, blissed-out vibe is the analeptic soundtrack to a summer we might not know we needed.

One final note. My love for African music was created and nurtured by the radio show "Afropop Worldwide" and the great Georges Collinet. For three decades it has brought the sounds of Africa to the world with style and grace. The show relied on grants from the National Endowment For The Arts, grants which have been summarily eliminated. Please consider helping however you can.