Now celebrating their 10th year, The Souljazz Orchestra continue their unrivalled run of fine albums. The resultant sound is gritty, low-budget and analogue and the musicianship is, as always, vice-tight. The album was recorded onto a temperamental Tascam 8-track tape machine inherited from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at a surplus sale. The plugged-in direction of the new album also provided the band with an excuse to dig out some of their dusty, forgotten electric instruments from the attic: an ancient vibrato-heavy transistor organ, pawn shop hollow-body electric guitars, a warbling psychedelic tape-echo machine, a cavernous surf-guitar spring reverb unit, even an old Italian-made Elka electric piano rescued from a garbage can.
Featuring lyrics sung in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Wolof (with borrowings from French and Arabic), the songs touch on subjects ranging from social and political issues to relationships and traditional folk tales. The compositions that arose from the sessions are in a variety of Afro, Latin and Caribbean styles, all connected by a consistent thread of North American soul and jazz sensibilities.
The album's cast includes singer, percussionist and songwriter El Hadji Élage M'baye, originally from Saint-Louis off the coast of Sénégal, now resident in Gatineau, Québec, a descendant of a long line of griot minstrels, acknowledged for his fusions of traditional Wolof sounds with modern popular music singer, songwriter and guitarist Rômmel Teixeira Ribeiro, hailing from São Luís in North-Eastern Brazil, now living in downtown Ottawa, recognised for his unusual mix of native Brazilian styles with North American, West African and Caribbean influences vocalist and songwriter Slim Moore, born in Overbrook, Ontario to Jamaican parents, better known for his soul-oriented work with the Mar-Kays but exploring here reggae-tinged original Patois material brilliant jazz trumpeter Nicholas Dyson versatile singer Amelia Leclair on backing vocals and the full Souljazz Orchestra core complete the line-up, with vocal contributions by drummer / conguero Philippe Lafrenière and baritone saxophonist Ray Murray. Hailing from diverse musical backgrounds, the guests were the catalyst for memorable artistic exchange, allowing each party to feed off the other and venture beyond their usual realm of experience into fresh musical territory. Rooted in rhythmically rich musical traditions of the past, the collective have kept their eyes on the future, pushing the boundaries of soul, jazz and tropical styles with a set of heavyweight new songs, unified by a powerful message of positive social change.Īfter the success of their last record, the all-acoustic, instrumental outing, ‘Rising Sun’, the Orchestra returns to electric, vocal-driven compositions on ‘Solidarity’, inviting in a selection of singers with whom they have collaborated at different times over the last decade. g-funk / master.p / aicelle santos / gretchen barreto / soldiers of fortune / spectrals / grupo salvaje / congotronics vs rockersĬopyright © 2009 - 2016 - All Rights Reserved 0.Canada’s hardest working super-group, The Souljazz Orchestra, return at full throttle this September with ‘Solidarity’, a new collaborative album featuring a range of unique artists from their country’s vibrant underground groove scene. Soul seven kim wilson / jeffrey wright bill sims, jr. Send The Souljazz Orchestra ringtones to your cell
Read More About The Souljazz Orchestra Biography. The Souljazz Orchestra are known for their captivating live shows and have collaborated with notable artists such as Beautiful Nubia and Mighty Popo and have opened up for Etta James, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and more. Their versatile sound is in part due to the diverse musical backgrounds of the bands individual members: jazz, funk, blues, reggae, classical, and traditional Cuban, Brazilian and West African percussion. Think - James Brown meets up with Tito Puente and they all hook up to jam at Fela Kuti’s house. Hailing from Ottawa, The Souljazz Orchestra combine jazz, funk, African and Latin music while touching on politics and spirituality. When a band is called The Souljazz Orchestra, there is a certain expectation to uphold that name and to provide a sound that accompanies such a title this band accomplishes just that and more. The Souljazz Orchestra is tagged as: afrobeat, jazz, funk, souljazz, canada