Driftglass (Jazz re:freshed)

Seed Ensemble

Released February 8, 2019

Jazzwise Top 10 Releases of 2019

YouTube:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mw1vRbtP3coOsFEAFSsgIy3o6JD7UmtwM

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/7ir6qHQhzKXlL6Uk6xD4f8?si=2cipzj0vSjiCsEtRYH6W_g

About:

Formed in 2016, SEED Ensemble is a ten-piece project led by composer, arranger and alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi. Already a giant on the UK jazz scene, she is known for her work with all-female jazz septet, Nerija, and afrobeat jazz group, Kokoroko. 

Combining jazz with inner-city London, West African and Caribbean influenced groove, Cassie Kinoshi’s SEED Ensemble explores a blend of genres through both original compositions and arrangements. “SEED Ensemble is my way of celebrating the vibrant and distinctive diversity that has significantly influenced what British culture has become over the centuries. 

Projecting this new musical vision are some of London’s most up-and-coming young jazz musicians essential to the modern identity of British jazz including tuba player Theon Cross, trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey, tenor saxophonist Chelsea Carmichael and one of London’s leading guitarists, Shirley Tetteh.  Across ‘Driftglass’, Kinoshi embraces styles both past and present to create something that we can call modern. Band members cut across race and gender with original compositions inspired by the social issues of our times.

Track Listing:

1. The Darkies 07:24

2. Afronaut ft. XANA 08:31

3. Stargaze #1: KATIN 02:07

4. The Dream Keeper 07:11

5. W A K E (for Grenfell) feat. Cherise Adams-Burnett 09:15

6. Stargaze #2: LAU 02:11

7. Mirrors 07:45

8. Interplanetary Migration ft. Mr Ekow 07:12

Personnel:

Cassie Kinoshi: alto saxophone

Miguel Gorodi: trumpet

Sheila Maurice Grey: trumpet

Chelsea Carmichael: tenor saxophone & flute

Joe Bristow: trombone

Theon Cross: tuba

Joe Armon-Jones: piano & Rhodes (WAKE (For Grenfell), Stargaze #1: KATIN, The Dreamkeeper, Interplanetary Migration)

Sarah Tandy: piano & Rhodes (Stargaze #2: LAU, The Darkies, Mirrors, Afronaut)

Shirley Tetteh: guitar

Rio Kai: double bass

Patrick Boyle: drums

Guests

XANA: poetry/spoken-word

Mr. Ekow: poetry/spoken word

Cherise Adams-Burnett: vocals

Additional Vocals (track 5): Jason Yarde

Lyrics by Langston Hughes (The Dreamkeeper, W A K E (for Grenfell)

Recorded October 2017, at Fish Factory Studio

Engineer: Benedic Lamdin

Mixing: Eric Lau

Mastering: Matt Lord

Cutting: Rob Thomas

Artwork: Sophie Bass

Producer: Jason Yarde

Review:

Though Cassie Kinoshi is fully aware of 1960s American civil rights suites such as her alto icon Jackie McLean’s It’s Time!, they didn’t directly influence this debut, with its distinctly British roots and concerns. Perhaps the most concerted attempt so far at a major album from a generation of young London players more attuned to performing, Driftglass draws on Afrofuturism for its hopeful scope, our musical melting-pot for its sound, and Kinoshi’s classical studies for its structure.

Social engagement has again inspired ambitious black American music in these fractious, urgent times, but local racial oppression and liberation animate these songs. ‘The Darkies’ suggests post-war British films’ seedy, street-level jazz noir even as Debussy’s ‘The Golliwog’s Cakewalk’ threads through the tune, trailing both beauty and its title’s archaic presumptions. Poet Xana adds transcendent tower-block dreams in which, “my heart bursts out of my chest like a rocket/As I gather stars in my pocket”. Grenfell Tower’s stubborn symbol of murderous social schism stands accusingly at the record’s heart, as ‘Wake (for Grenfell)’ turns a Langston Hughes line into a mournful work-song chant, pointedly soured by Kinoshi’s tart alto tone.

The SEED Ensemble is another permutation of the London scene’s currently omnipresent players, and their individuality is crucially encouraged. Sarah Tandy splits keyboard duties with Joe Armon-Jones, but it’s her Rhodes’ glistening, slow flow which adds impressionistic colour, on ‘Mirrors’ especially. Lacking the obvious thematic baggage elsewhere, that tune floats free into its own atmosphere. Both the songs’ rigid overall structures and occasionally slack development hold Driftglass back from greatness. But Kinoshi’s debut bursts with often achieved ambition, and time is on her side. 

Nick Hasted (Jazzwise)

➜ Read our Cassie Kinoshi interview: ‘I feel like, in Britain, we don’t like to acknowledge the problems we have’