Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Kinetic: World of Wonder

5

Kinetic: World of Wonder

By

View read count
Kinetic: World of Wonder
Keyboardist and composer of all the music on Kinetic's debut album, Joe Sheehan, spent six months studying traditional music and dance in Ghana, West Africa and that country's musical influences are evident here, enhanced particularly by PJ Roduta's percussive contributions.

Opening with the energetic "World of Wonder," the secret weapon of this band is clearly Anqwenique Wingfield. Her pellucid vocalisation is used to great effect and double-tracked on this number to provide harmonies. The piece eventually moves into an exciting accelerando coda, gradually fading out amidst energetic percussion.

Presenting contrasting reflective moods, ballads such as "Waiting for Giving" and "My Everything" demonstrate that Wingfield's vocals can carry these often sinuous melodies with consummate ease and flair -check out her breathtaking sustained note ending to "Then." With mid-tempo numbers such as "Proverb" and "Bless This Day," the West African influences seem to simultaneously embrace South American ones too, with shades of early Return to Forever featuring Flora Purim.

The African percussive vibe returns on the lively instrumental "Dancing Chicken" as the RTF similarity re-emerges once more, replete with tempo changes, growling bass and a lengthy guitar solo. The album closes with "Will Not Forget," Wingfield's silky vocals punctuated by a short stinging guitar solo and tight percussion breaks. Whilst there clearly are some influences heard here (and what record isn't influenced by something or someone?), this is anything but a derivative album. Sheehan's captivating and intelligent compositions ensure that they exude their own originality and vibrancy, culminating in a very satisfying project indeed.

Track Listing

World of Wonder; Waiting for Giving; Proverb; My Everything; Show Me; Bless This Day; Dancing Chicken; Then; Will Not Forget.

Personnel

Anqwenique Wingfield: vocals; Michael Borowski: guitar; Joe Sheehan: keyboards; Jason Rafalak: bass; PJ Roduta: percussion; Ryan Socrates: drums.

Album information

Title: World of Wonder | Year Released: 2015 | Record Label: Self Produced

Tags

Comments

About Kinetic

Articles | Concerts | Albums | Photos | Similar

PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

Near

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.