Posts Tagged ‘koichi sakai’

Event: Highlife in Hackney!

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

secousse

It’s not often I get impressed with bands. When I read the blurb for AJ Holmes & The Hackney Empire before I saw them for the first time I was ready to be disappointed. A decidedly camp looking white guy with an electro-pop background learns how to play Highlife guitar, fuses it with his pop stylings and sets out to conquer the world with his new brand of electric Highlife…..hmmm, no thanks. When I actually witnessed AJ & the Empire perform, I had to eat my words, my hat and a fat slice of humble pie. The band smashed it, and did so with such unpretentious integrity that barely anyone in the room could avoid becoming a part of the performance. How a motley crew from Hackney can manipulate Palm-Wine Highlife so well is beyond me, but they can.

For those who don’t know, Palm-Wine Highlife is a guitar based music which has it’s origins in the Palm Wine shacks of 1950s Ghana. In the years leading up to the Second World War, Highlife was a term used to describe the upper-class entertainment of Ghana’s more exclusive nightclubs. Characterized by huge ensembles and stiff, european dance-steps, the Highlife scene was not welcoming of the lower strata of Ghanaian society. After the war, the music of the poor man’s Palm Wine bar, synonymous with drunkenness and fusing the blues with local folk tales, tunes and elements of Calypso and Jazz somehow also earned the tag Highlife. This is the Palm-Wine Highlife AJ Holmes has mastered, and ratings to him for pulling it off; the last time I checked, Hackney and Accra didn’t have that much in common….

Anyway, point is, AJ Holmes & The Hackney Empire are headlining this Saturday 20th at Passing Clouds and I honestly (not in a promoterish type way, cos i’m not even promoting it) think they’re well worth checking out. To seal the deal, I’m spinning alongside community soldier KMT and the afrobeat vibrations of Koichi Sakai. We’re all digging deep for our tropical treats….but don’t expect a night of music that was made 50 years ago….nah, it’s about making the old work with the new. AJ’s influences range from Highlife to Grime and he’s resident at West London’s biggest Tropical session Secousse alongside the Radioclit duo. You dun know my style already and i’ve heard KMT cut & paste everything from Soca and Bashment to African Lutes and large slabs of Hip Hop….trust me, it’ll be worth the trip….Flyer below.

PassingClouds_Flyer

Jazz on the Road

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

This Saturday, Jazz on the Road bring us an ‘Afro Jazz Special’. With a theme such as that, I’m sure you can conjure up some kind of image of the night that awaits you. I’m also sure you realise that this image won’t even come close to the actual live experience.

Featuring live…

UNITED VIBRATIONS
Reppin’ our extended family… UV have built up a reputation for turning pavements into parties. Their music is 12tone. Expect to be infected by their tight sounds, raw flow and dangerously contagious vibes.

AWALE
Awalé is a London based Afro Gypsy Funk musical project with members from Tunisia, France, Cuba and England. Musically, Awalé draws on these influences whilst reflecting the diversity of multicultural London.

awale

… As if this wasn’t enough, just for good measure, there will also be jazz dance performances from Maki & Kola (Jazzcotech Dancers) to keep us tantalized and some heavy sound selections from Tony Nwachukwu (CDR) and Koichi Sakai (Afrobeat Vibration).

Jump on board the train… Freedom awaits you!

Sat 20th February 2010
at The NEW Empowering Church
1a Westgate Street, London E8 3RL
Door opens: 21:00 – 4:00
Entry: £6 before 22:00, £8 thereafter

Facebook Event Page

Event: Afrobeat Vibration

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Dele Sosimi is back for the first time in 2010 with his Afrobeat Orchestra and the phenomenal DJ, Koichi Sakai.

For those of you that have no idea about the significance of this statement, I urge you to come and experience this super-party for yourself… A mixture of Fela’s classics and Dele’s own material fuels this jamming session till the wee hours of dawn.

Here’s what they have to say for themselves:

“All those who had been eagerly awaiting for this Fela Kuti’s Egypt 80 original keyboard player Dele Sosimi’s dedication of Afrobeat have the opportunity to feel the heat once again. He will bring authentic Kalakuta style live Afrobeat performance with the finest musicians and dancers in London. DJ Koichi Sakai will drop heavy weight Afrobeat, Afro Funk and Tropical sounds ’strictly vinyl only’ on the decks.”

Click here to watch Dele in Off The Meters’ Afrobeat Vibration promotional video or check out this mini-interview (below) that I managed to get with Dele sharing a piece of his mind:

1.Which afrobeat tracks would you say are essential for anyone wanting to dig deeper into the genre?

Lady, Shakara, Zombie, Sorrow Tears and Blood, Water No Get Enemy, Teacher, Power Show, Beast Of No Nation, E No Possible and Expensive Shit are all Fela Kuti classic favourites of mine. Better still, Essential Afrobeat which is a 3 Cd Afrobeat compilation selected by me and released by Family Recordings will take you on a real ear opening journey.

2. What do you think of the afrobeat scene in UK by comparison to Nigeria?

It is certainly more dynamic, developed and diverse here in the UK. There is an ever-increasing variety of artists representing afrobeat in their own way such as Tony Allen, Bukky Leo, Funso Ogunndipe, Fanga London Afrobeat Collective, Afrobeat Crusaders and Hot Club Afrobeat Orchestra to name a few. However in Nigeria, there only seems to be Femi and Seun Kuti when there should be much more. I would love to see more happening in Nigeria although this would require a tremendous shift in the cultural ideology of the nation.

3. What is your vision for afrobeat? How do you see afrobeat evolving?

Afrobeat itself is a fusion of different genres. I believe that music should always evolve and collaborate with other genres such as funk, hip-hop, jazz and so on. Through projects such as ‘Red Hot & Riot‘ or ‘FELA!‘ the musical, afrobeat has been able to reach wider audiences and continues to live on. Now more artists from other genres are wanting to co-write, produce, compose and release new material which is one of the most basic tools required for the development and evolution of genres. In saying this, I hope to see for example, ‘Dele Sosimi featuring Snoop Dogg‘, ‘… Jay-Z‘ or fingers crossed ‘… Esperanza Spalding!’

4. Share some words about what Afrobeat Vibration means to you.

Afrobeat Vibration is a deep movement that will infect you, make you reflect and affect you. Once you get a feel of it, you will not be able to stay away from us. Through this party, I have been able to keep the afrobeat fire burning and build a large family of musicians and listeners who all share in the same passion.

Thanks Dele for shedding some light on the issue and we certainly look forward to dancing till we’ve at least filled a few buckets of sweat*.

Afrobeat no go die!

Saturday 30th January at The NEW Empowering Church
1a Westgate Street (off Mare Street), London E8 3RL
Nearest station: London Fields
Bus: 26, 48, 55, 106, 236, 254, 388, D6, N26, N55, N253

Entry: £10/£8 advance booking. *An added (FREE) bonus to the night is the ‘full Nigerian’ breakfast in the morning.

Doors: 9pm     DJ starts: 10pm     Live show: 12am onwards.
Please get there early to avoid the queue on the door.

Dele Sosimi’s current album Identity is available at Amazon, iTunes and many other outlets. Check his MySpace for more details.