Tom Land
This album has continued to entertain and give me juice since I discovered it several years ago. And all my friends with whom I shared it also find it to have great upbeat energy. May Waaju create more music!
freejazzy
This production is sharp & crisp. Cool jazzy world rhythms all the way. Cutting guitar, expressive sax. Just to support the other comments I'll select a different favorite song.
Favorite track: Moleman.
Bob Hill Illicit Grooves
If 'Listening Glasses' is anything to go by then this album will be immense. Have already played it on The Illicit Grooves Radio Show and fully expect the single and album to feature in the #IllicitGroovesAwards2020
Favorite track: Listening Glasses.
Ian Rawlinson
There’s so much to love in this bold, gorgeous, record. Favourite track? Well that changes from day to day and mood to mood. Right now it’s Grown, but yesterday it was Moleman. It’s glorious from start to finish.
Favorite track: Grown.
All faking around
Time has got a hold of us now
Try to wade between the sounds
Decide to see what it's all about
As we relate amidst the clouds
Planting all my seeds of doubt
Far too late to move it now
Have to let them show us how
Something tells me we've been clinging hopelessly
Sometimes moments pass us by it seems
Wide panic
All this time alone been wreaking the havoc
I've been searching for the answers this time
I've been waiting on my soul to come ask me
Wide panic
All this time alone we wreaking the havoc
I've been searching for the answers this time
I've been waiting on my soul to come ask me
Search for common sense
Moving through the turns and the bends
No more present tense
Taking from somebody's plan
They want their be and end
While all of us just sat on the fence
All before the openness
Days just see to come to an end
Something tells me we've been clinging hopelessly
Sometimes moments pass us by always it seems
Something tells me we've been clinging hopelessly
Sometimes moments pass us by always it seems
Wide panic
All this time alone we wreaking the havoc
I've been searching for the answers this time
I've been waiting on my soul to come ask me
Wide panic
All this time alone we wreaking the havoc
I've been searching for the answers this time
I've been waiting on my soul to come ask me
Wide panic
All this time alone we wreaking the havoc
I've been searching for the answers this time
I've been waiting on my soul to come ask me
Pulsing Afro-Latin roots and UK jazz combine on Grown, the latest album by London-based quintet Waaju, released via Olindo Records. Fusing dexterous hand-percussion, hypnotic guitar riffs and soaring melodies, Waaju connect a wide range of traditional musics percolating at different corners of the global soundscape yet with a distinctly of-the-moment and British jazz flavour.
Led by drummer and percussionist Ben Brown (Alfa Mist, Dizraeli, Ashley Henry), and comprising members across the UK’s extensive music scene including, percussionist Ernesto Marichales (Jordan Rakei, Sigala), guitarist Tal Janes (Nubiyan Twist, Bahla), Sam Rapley (Fabled, Maria Chiara Argiro) and Joe Downard (China Moses, Judi Jackson), Waaju’s unique and divergent sound connects the dots between the likes of Beth Carvalho, Oscar D’Leon, Alain Peters and Los Muñequitos de Matanzas.
Waaju formed as a means of exploring music’s hidden connections, from trance-inducing Moroccan gnawa to Caribbean carnival music, and embracing them to reflect the different layers of London’s own musical culture. It was the band’s love for Mali’s folk music – and Ali Farka Touré’s stylistic prowess in particular – that first set the project in motion. London’s Jazz Cafe invited Waaju to reinterpret classic tracks from Farka Touré’s catalogue to sold-out audiences in 2018 and 2019. According to Brown: “Ali’s one of the best. He has such a unique sound. His playing is so gnarly. His spirit and attitude are things I always think of when making music.”
Waaju (meaning ‘to urge, inspire or influence to take action’ in Bambara) blend Latin polyrhythms, psychedelic Malian blues licks and dancefloor-oriented UK jazz arrangements. Following the group’s 2018 self-titled debut LP, Grown represents Waaju at their most distinctive and refined.
credits
released June 12, 2020
Ben Brown - drums, percussion
Sam Rapley - saxophone, shaker (track 4)
Tal Janes - guitar
Ernesto Marichales - congas, percussion
Joe Downard - bass
Produced by Ben Brown
Music by Waaju, except Time's Got A Hold co-written by Waaju & Jordan Rakei
Recorded & Mixed by Alex Killpartrick at Giant Wafer Studios
Mastered by Frank Merritt at The Carvery
Artwork by Valentina Badano
Additional Design by Brunella Giannangeli
Jazz bassist Nim Sadot pays homage to the life of his his late grandfather, a Polish artist who escaped a Soviet labor camp. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 1, 2022