By Angie Lemon PR
Published March 15, 2021
Rafiki Jazz, a group that is described as creating ‘sweeping divine border-less music’ and as ‘the best of British! How to do ‘East meets West’ with subtlety and flair’, is on March 26, 2021 set to release a new album that is described as exemplifying ‘the moment where culture, faith, sound and spirit collide’ on the Konimusic label.
Yes, Rafiki Jazz place musical diversity at the forefront of their music with eight new internationalist songs of enlightenment and change that cherish the human spirit, its joy and its fragility. The dust that is NDUGGU is both physical and symbolic.
Rafiki Jazz focus on the changing climate with ever-increasing desertification of Northern Africa, while dust also acts as a symbol reflecting our ultimate destiny.
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The message of the title track, Nduggu Bouy, challenges what is happening in the Sahel region of Africa, between the Sahara to the north and Sudan to the south. Is anyone taking notice? As Rafiki Jazz reflect, “The global climate emergency is bringing acute desertification across the Sahel.”
“Too much dust…we wrap our heads and sit and wait…who failed to warn us?” Rafiki Jazz pose.
The track also features London-based hereditary griot, Kadialy Kouyate. Featuring his warm and soulful Fula singing and the stunning 21-string kora, Kouyate notably brings the traditional West African harp to meet traditional Southern Asian tabla drums and more.
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Due to the emergence of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 2020 saw the world of music uprooted and thrown into a new isolated online virtual realm. In keeping with their pledge to stay accessible, Rafiki Jazz took on a whole new approach of recording this their 5th studio album using online collaborative ‘real time’ music sharing platforms. A perfect example of their collaborative methods is the Turkish ode to their band manager ‘GesiBaglari’ in which all members of the band contributed the tracks compositions remotely from the comfort of their homes.
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Equipped with funding from the Arts Council of England, each member of the group set up their own home digital recording workstations, as well as being able to feature guest artists K.O.G. aka Kweku Sackey on the rich highlife track ‘Ngozi Ucheoma’ (Unlock your heart…life is a blessing) and guest percussionists Millie Chapanda and Amir Ezzat plus audio programmer-engineer Robin Downe.
As well as this, old souls come together in a new role: long term violinist Vijay Venkat shocked the band by picking up the vocal mic on ‘Naalaikku Nalla Naal (Tomorrow is a good day).
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The album also features the comeback of a previously recorded track: this time produced as a more traditional and authentic take of the Kashmiri lullaby ‘Hukus Bukus’.
While Rafiki Jazz has always exemplified multiculturalism with their ‘big band’ aesthetics as an orchestra that features steel pans, tablas, berimbau, darbuka, kora, maqam vocals, bass, ouds and flutes, this pandemic-lead album is a true intersection of individualism and collaboration. Altogether an eclectic and exciting album, triumphantly and successfully complete, circumventing the constraints of online remote working. This album may be Rafiki Jazz’s finest.
The tracks on the compilation that plays for 38 minutes are:
- Naalaikku Nalla Naal | Tomorrow is a good day (Tamil/India)
- Nduggu Bouy | Too much dust (Fula/Guinea)
- Tum naAaye | Before you came (Urdu/Pakistan)
- Ngozi Ucheoma | Blessings (Igbo/Pidgin Nigeria/Ghana)
- OmkothMa’ai | Stay with me (Coptic Arabic/Egypt)
- Bani | Refusal(Mandinka/Senegal)
- HukusBukus | Who are you and I?(Kashmiri/Kashmir), and
- GesiBaglari | Gesi vineyards (Turkish/Turkey).
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Rafiki Jazz Musicians comprise:
Sarah Yaseen: vocals, conga, djembe.
Catherine Ngozi Carr: vocals, guitar, steelpans.
Mina Mikhail Salama: vocals, oud, saz, duduk, kawala, ney, glockenspiel, udu.
Kadialy Kouyate: vocals, kora.
Vijay Venkat: vocals, violin, viola, bansuri.
Toni Koni: bass guitar, clave.
John Ball: tabla, santoor.
Guery Tibirica: berimbau, pandeiro, gumbe.
Special Guest Musicians:
Millie Chapanda: hosho, dunun, vocal call.
K.O.G.: vocals, bongo, agogo, handclaps, djembe.
Amir Ezzat: riqq, daf, darbuka.
Robin Downe: programming, handclaps.
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Meanwhile, ARC World Music label reports that it is releasing an 8-track album titled Voice of Flowers – Spring Ragas from India on March 26, 2021.
The album, by Baluji Shrivastav OBE, ARC says, “captures the rapture of spring, expressing seasonal feelings of renewal and hope through the subtle nuances of the chosen ragas. He celebrates his mastery of the sitar with wonderful sensitivity and dexterity. Accompanied by Sukhvinder Singh ‘Pinky’ on tabla with vivacious renditions of relas and chakradas.”
The songs on the album are:
- Saraswati Worship (alaap, jor, jhalla)
- Raga Vasant Mukhari Aarti
- Raga Marva Vasant (alaap, jor, jhalla)
- Raga Hindol Vasant – Celebration (medium tempo)
- Raga Vasant Bahar – Delicate Blossoms (alaap, jor, jhalla)
- Raga Vasant Bahar – Embrace of Spring
- Raga Shuddha Vasant – Ecstasy of Spring, and
- Vasant Priya (alaap, jor, jhalla).
