East Coast Jazz Festival at Nirwich Playhouse
If ever a Norwich jazz audience's expectations were confounded, it was when Soweto Kinch opened his set with a rap.
But then you wouldn't expect the young Mercury Music and Mobo award-winning alto saxophonist to have gained his jazz spurs by retreading the music of days gone by.
Not that Kinch is unaware of jazz heritage. Echoes of the late great Joe Harriot and Eric Dolphy can both be heard in his dynamic playing.
Kinch has taken this heritage and fused it, seamlessly, with urban rhythms to create a music that is all his own.
The title track from his debut album, Conversations with the Unseen, seems to sum up best what the band is all about. Shifting rhythm patterns and a knowing use of dynamics.
Each memeber of the band, Femi Temowo (guitar), Abram Wilson (trumpet), Troy Miller (drums) and Michael Olatuja (bass), is able to provide his own eloquent contribution, while giving enough space to allow Kinch's memorable compositions to flourish.
Anyone fearing for the future of jazz can stop worrying right now. It's safe in the hands of Soweto Kinch.
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