Conversations With the Unseen (Dune)
Soweto Kinch
Released April 27, 2003
New York Times Best Jazz Albums of 2004
Mercury Music Prize for An Album Of The Year 2003
MOBO Award for Best Jazz Act 2003
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=akpIBYL-Q5U&list=RDAMVMakpIBYL-Q5U
About:
Born in London, England on 10th January 1978 to a Barbadian father and British-Jamaican mother, Soweto Kinch is one of the most exciting and versatile young musicians to hit the British Jazz and Hip Hop scenes in recent years.
He first became interested in music at the tender age of eight, playing clarinet at primary school. He quickly developed a fondness for the alto saxophone and was given his first instrument when he was nine. After meeting Wynton Marsalis four years later he discovered and became passionate about Jazz, first concentrating on piano and later, in his teens, focusing on saxophone.
His family had a strong artistic influence on him, his father being a playwright and his mother an actress. Having this theatrical background exposed him to performance and meant that he was often surrounded by musicians and other artists such as Jazz tap dancer Will Gaines and percussionist/bebop vocalist Frank Holder. Moving to Birmingham aged 9 was key to Soweto’s development, and the city has continued to play a crucial role in his unique identity He cultivated his interest in the Jazz tradition alongside a passion for Hip Hop culture, joining the group Pentalk in 1994. Soweto is one of only a few artists who’s appeal traverses underground and mainstream audiences, and who is equally respected in Jazz and Hip Hop circles.
Soweto is essentially a self-taught musician who has supplemented his musical education by gathering information from books and transcribing Jazz recordings. He was also fortunate in attracting the attention of two of the most important Jazz luminaries in Britain, saxophonist Courtney Pine OBE and double bassist Gary Crosby, both of whom were key mentors. A series of his recent recordings have also seen him extending his skills as an MC and producer, and again drawing plaudits from Hip Hop luminaries on both sides of the Atlantic, such as Mos Def, Rodney P and Ty.
Soweto made the practical decision to become a full time musician fairly recently. Graduating from Oxford University in 1999 with a BA in Modern History, he was set to pursue a career in journalism or to undertake post-graduate studies. However, the offer of a place within the core band of Tomorrow’s Warriors and with Crosby’s professional bands persuaded him to choose music as a career path. In 1999 Soweto began organising and developing his own arts/music project in Birmingham, The Live Box. The project is still going, entering its 8th years as a weekly jam session, and involves Soweto organising special events and workshops for young musicians (aged 6-18). Soweto continues to programme special events to raise the project’s profile, and get alternative culture on the map, and his previous guests include, Jazz saxophonist Steve Williamson, vocalist Eska Mtungwazi and hip hop act, Ty, Wynton Marsalis, and Ursula Rucker. A healthy respect for Jazz pioneers, and an enterprising spirit, and passion for alternative culture at a grass roots level, have really set Kinch apart from many artists of his generation.
Soweto’s musical influences are as broad as they are diverse. He particularly admires Sonny Rollins for his innovative style and successful appropriation of West Indian music within the Jazz canon. His Hip Hop references range from modern day greats such as KRS ONE and Pharaoh Monche to Dub poet innovators such as Linton Kwesi Johnson, Mikey Smith and beat poets such as Jean Sheppard. Most recently, Soweto has been influenced by baroque and early classical music, following an interest he has in the 17th and 18th century black population of Britain.
Whilst much of Soweto’s music is firmly rooted in Jazz – drawing equally from swing-era, be-bop and post-bop schools – he also works on projects where he can integrate other music. He has been inspired by groups such as De La Soul, and producers like Mad Lib. And his brief spell with Crosby’s Jazz Jamaica, and Ernest Ranglin’s band have nurtured a respect and affection for reggae and Jamaican folk music – which can be heard in both his Jazz work and his Hip Hop production.
As a saxophone player, Soweto is rapidly developing his own sound that is rich, energetic and dynamic and though he clearly has a strong respect for tradition, he is continually exploring his Jazz inheritance. His aim is to move audiences with the simplicity of his Jazz quartet, discovering the breadth of sounds and dynamics he can achieve with these basic elements.
Kinch’s band came together in 2001 as a trio featuring double bassist Michael Olatuja, and drummer Troy Miller, and almost immediately they were supporting Courtney Pine, performing at the Royal Festival Hall and Cheltenham International Jazz Festival.
Soweto made his first appearance on record in October 2001 as a member of the internationally-acclaimed Jazz Jamaica All Stars, a 20-piece big band blending Jazz with Reggae, Ska and other Caribbean rhythms, alongside a number of notable British Jazz musicians, including, Denys Baptiste, Orphy Robinson and Guy Barker. As well as playing in the horn section on all tracks, the album gave Soweto the opportunity to show his abilities as a soloist and arranger.
July 2002 was a milestone for Soweto in terms of his career. First he won the inaugural White Foundation International Saxophone Competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival, fending off competition from top young players from all over the world, including graduates of Berklee and Manhattan School of Music. His win assured him of shows for his own band in the 2003 Montreux Jazz Festival, the IAJE Annual Festival in Toronto, and at the famed Ronnie Scott’s Club, London. Hot on the heels of this major award, Soweto picked up the prestigious BBC Radio Jazz Award for Rising Star 2002 and, as a member of Jazz Jamaica All Stars, the BBC Radio award for Best Band 2002.
Word began to spread quickly about this amazing rising star and, in March 2003, the great Jamaican guitarist, Ernest Ranglin engaged Soweto to join him, with Mafia and Fluxy, for his Australia/New Zealand tour including performances at Womad.
When he’s not performing or practising, a great deal of Soweto’s time is spent composing and arranging material. Undoubtedly his parents’ affinity to the theatre has rubbed off on him, in December 2000, he was given a role in a film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, The Cat’s Meow (produced in December 2000, released April 2002). He completed a commission with NITRO Black Theatre Cooperative in November 2001 for whom he composed a score for ‘Slamdunk’ – a Hip Hop musical theatre piece that toured nationally. Similarly, he composed the score for a production in Birmingham, ‘Its Just A Name’ produced by Nu Century Arts (April 2002) and written by his father Don Kinch.
In 2002, Soweto began work on his début album, extending his band to quartet status with the addition of guitar (Femi Temowo). Working with respected saxophonist and producer, Jason Yarde – he created a stunning album that brings together his love of Jazz and Hip-Hop. On Conversations With The Unseen, he brings Charlie Parker and Q-Tip into the zone, combining straight-ahead jazz with cutting edge hip-hop.
Track Listing:
1. Intro (Soweto Kinch) 02:10
2. Doxology (Soweto Kinch) 09:15
3. Conversatioins With the Unseen (Soweto Kinch) 07:34
4. Elision (Soweto Kinch) 05:56
5. Spokes and Pedals (Soweto Kinch) 06:29
6. Intermission – Split Decision (Soweto Kinch) 08:19
7. Snake Hips (Soweto Kinch) 07:39
8. Mungo’s Adventure (Soweto Kinch) 07:06
9. The Flame-Thrower (Soweto Kinch) 02:59
10. Equiano’s Tears (Soweto Kinch) 10:22
11. Good Nyooz (Soweto Kinch) 03:21
12. Outro (Soweto Kinch) 03:23
Personnel:
Soweto Kinch: alto saxophone, rap vocals
Femi Temowo: guitar
Michael Olatuja: bass
Troy Miller: drums
Eska Mtungwazi: vocals
Abram Wilson: trumpet, vocals (Intermission – Split Decision)
Review:
Out of Birmingham, England, Soweto Kinch (age 25) is an artist of a new sort-a rapper, but also an alto saxophonist who clearly has imbibed everything from Bird through Osby. His Conversations With the Unseen is far from the first attempt at hybridizing jazz and hip-hop.
What distinguishes it is that it isn’t really a hybrid at all, but rather a jazz album with a discrete hip-hop component. After his two-minute rap “Intro” (a standard hip-hop device), Kinch launches into a spiky head called “Doxology” with his quartet-Femi Temowo on guitar, Michael Olatuja on bass, Troy Miller on drums. Kinch’s tone is bright, his attack aggressive, his flow of ideas seamless. Temowo favors a dry vintage sound that brings Liberty Ellman to mind. Together, Kinch and Temowo play unison figures exceptionally well, and Kinch has made sure to privilege that sound throughout the recording.
The hip-hop aesthetic doesn’t return until track six, “Intermission-Split Decision,” an eight-minute rap interlude. Everything but the concluding “Good Nyooz” and “Outro” is straightahead jazz, from Kinch’s own pen. It’s adventurous and well-executed, with the hard-swinging drive of classic Blue Note, the rhythmic surprise of early Wynton Marsalis and the searching spirit of things yet to come. “Snakehips” and “Mungo’s Adventure” have a certain Rollins-like playfulness, which is balanced by the dark, balladic texture of the title track and the epic sweep of “Equiano’s Tears.” Eska Mtungwazi’s scat/neo-soul vocal on “Good Nyooz” is startling in its virtuosity.
In the liners, Kinch is quoted as follows: “It wasn’t alien to Louis Armstrong to put down his horn… and sing…. I don’t see why spoken word shouldn’t be compatible with improvisation.” Kinch is hardly alone in that view, but unlike Roy Hargrove, Andy Milne, Matt Shipp and other experimenters in hip-hop, Kinch is able to serve as his own MC. It’ll be fascinating to see where he takes this next.
David R. Adler (JazzTimes)
