Ya know I think I've dropped just about enough breadcrumbs to get everyone started on the UK #jazz scene though there are still a lot of great (or at least popular) names I haven't gotten to but I want to close with one of my favorites from just before most of the current wave - a huge track from Kevin Haynes Grupo Elegba. Haynes is a serious Santeria devotee and his music blends spiritual jazz, #Cuban and West #African styles; when the kora drops at about 8:30 🤯
@Justweiss cheers - thread these together for a great playlist and then follow the trails out from there - literally every Shabaka project and album is worth hearing just to start!
The many, many styles of #music from #Africa are another of my obsessions and I'll do a similar post barrage on that topic sometime in the future (for now if you're interested follow @cybeardjm whose posts have a wealth of great links). But the hypnotic, surging cascades of a great kora player always move me deeply and in the context of this floating spiritual jazz it can't help but remind me of the glissandos of Alice Coltrane. I wish there was a LOT more music like this - am I missing any???
@mrcompletely thx. If not known already, you should try the 3rd album by Kora Jazz Trio with Djeli Moussa Diawara (Mory Kante's half-brother) on Kora. I later produced him, and there are a few interesting Jazz covers (So What, Caravan...).
He uses a unique 32-string Kora (usually 21 to 24) and plays with full hands, not 2-4 fingers.
@mrcompletely personal opinion: many (most) contemporary Kora players are just boring to listen to, even well known names. They stick to the griot way of using the instrument and very quickly become repetitive.
@SquirrelyGrrl@cybeardjm this is the track I was talking about... The first several minutes are great uplifting spiritual jazz, then the kora kicks in which has the Alice vibes.
@SquirrelyGrrl@cybeardjm all the drum parts for this album are taken directly from Cuban Santeria ritual drumming. Each one is dedicated to a particular loa and in ceremony would call in that loa to ride one of the dancers - riding is a form of positive, voluntary possession. Haynes created a modal harmonic vocabulary to go with each drum mode.
@SquirrelyGrrl@cybeardjm yeah he's serious about the Grupo Elegba thing. Of course Elegba is the Opener, the Pathway and Doorway, syncretic with Ganesha and Hermes in various ways, so Elegba opens the path for the other orisha/loa to ride in on the various rhythms
@mrcompletely@SquirrelyGrrl did you know that many Beninese bands, since at least Poly-Rythmo, include or merge traditional Vaudoun rhythms in their music. Gangbe Brass Band used to study these rhythms in traditional temples for inspiration before composing. Try their 3rd album.
@cybeardjm@SquirrelyGrrl yes, certainly. That's powerful stuff and I know it's central to the early Poly-Rythmo sound. That was part of what initially drew me to it; my ex was a santeria initiate and I spent some years getting to know the tradition and its African roots through her. I haven't heard Gangbe though. I'll absolutely check that out!
@SquirrelyGrrl@cybeardjm they're very beautiful traditions. Very humane, much more psychologically sophisticated than seems well understood. The orisha traditions are focused on real life and there's a beautiful kind of pragmatism in it, but foremostly it is an experiential thing, embodied, a lived tradition that comes alive in the practitioners. I hold it in the highest regard and respect. I am not an initiate but I do draw my own vevès and ask Elegba to open the way for the muse in my art.
@mrcompletely@SquirrelyGrrl Gangbe means "sound of metal" referring to the many gongs ("cowbells") used in traditional rhythms and a supposed reference to the first royal metal trumpets/horns. Brass Bands were (are less and less) popular, due to strong church bands but many have evolved into marching bands.
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