Love Is Everywhere, and Love Is The Message. For the last years, we’ve seen a lot of love and unity come from overseas - the UK specifically - , where London is known as the place where the jazz cats hang out at day and roam the nightlife like foxes, rapidly moving from one place to another. No surprise our line-up this year is overflowing with talent from London, nearly all interconnected or known to have long lasting bonds through life and music. As a kick-off for our weekend triple threat, we’ll introduce you to the UK highlights of the Super-Sonic Jazz fam.
Wonky Logic
Dwayne Kirvington likes to operate and create in solitude, and that’s what you’ll first see of him during Super-Sonic Jazz. Kicking off our festival friday, Wonky Logic will shoot Paradiso directly into space with future-minded broken beat and trippy beats - all improvised, all from first intuition. But before Kirvington would set up this little Sun Ra-based universe of his own, he would play in a lot of bands - some of them also on this year’s line-up.
As a former member of Steam Down, Wonky knows what’s up with pouring some nasty synths out on warmed-up crowds, and as a keys player for Emma-Jean Thackray, this man adds a solid bass to the already seat-shaking tuba sounds in Emma-Jeans band. Next to that, Wonky Logic is a respected musician and producer recently working with Eddie Chacon, John Carroll Kirby and Nala Sinephro, being a creative director for the S-SJ LCSM LP and releasing his own EP on our very own Super-Sonic Jazz imprint.
Ego Ella May
Being very eloquent and meditative over intention, meaning and release, Ego Ella May treats her musical output like a true treasure. Take latest EP Fieldnotes (2021) for example, on which her reflections, confusions, struggles and emotions concerning lockdown come to surface. Not seldomly adding hand-written notes to her exquisite, serene R&B-jazz, the South London-based artist has left a deep impression on us already.
Working with Eddie Hick (drums, Sons of Kemet), Joe-Armon Jones (keys, Ezra Collective), Ashley Henry (keys), Wonky Logic (production) and Alfa Mist (production), Ego Ella May has stretched her network into the most delicate, Rhodes-driven fields of UK jazz. But she’s mostly known for rocking it on her own: her music is deeply personal and perfected to a layered extent. Today marks a special day for performing, because the productive vocalist is releasing a brand new single for the both of us, a deeply personal, detailed elegy about what to do after break-up. Big chance we might witness the intimate, orchestral live premiere of the beautiful track tonight.
cktrl
One Londoner to take things to a more visual, artsy and experimental level is cktrl, the prolific saxophone player, clarinetist, producer and artist who just released his brand-new zero EP. Working with the likes of Duval Timothy, Mereba and Coby Sey, Bradley Mirror dives head-first into the deep in his mellow, surprising compositions. Both emotionally and sonically. Bright harp melodies. free jazz-inspired saxophone solos and vocal samples guide you towards the light. Take the time to delve into the world of cktrl tonight, make sure not to miss out on this immersive live experience.
Sons of Kemet
As an epicentre of the UK jazz scene, Shabaka Hutchings has lent his talent and expertise to many albums, artists and projects. His own musical vehicles are pretty known as well, with the likes of the freaked out space-electro-jazz outfit The Comet Is Coming and spiritual afro-guidance trip Shabaka & The Ancestors being the most popular ones. But the one that really stands out and moves the bigger crowds is the four-piece afro-caribbean brass jazz combo Sons Of Kemet, in which the musical and humanistic blend together in a cathartic mix of high-energy rhythm boogie diving deep into black ancestral history. Songs like Hustle honour the fathers and mothers who became before the generation Hutchings is part of, amplify black voices and are aiming for equality, emancipation and overthrow of toxic (societal) systems. This is the music where it all comes together: as a release, a moment of reflection and a space to shake it all out, for both artist and audience.
Steam Down
There’s no room for calming down and unwinding right after Sons of Kemet: Steam Down is here to maintain the intense energies and BPMS that have floated through Paradiso during the band before them. More community founders than a band, South-East London’s Steam Down is more than just the music. It’s about lifestyle, family, gathering (every wednesday!), creating, expressing and releasing. And that’s exactly the thing we like at Super-Sonic Jazz. The young collective blends a mix of modern bass-driven electronics, razor-sharp synths, vivid choirs and spry brass sections. For the dub heads, and even the drum & bass heads among us. Their ultimate aim according to founder and bandleader Anhanse: “to be remembered as a space that broke down the boundaries for connection between people, as something that created music that represented what’s happening in our world right now, and that left a positive mark on people’s lives.” Spreading love everywhere, because Love Is Everywhere.
Catch all of these acts tonight at Super-Sonic Jazz. Doors open at 18.00 pm sharp, Wonky Logic takes off in his space rocket at 18.30 pm.