Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible second album from Kinch, 8 Nov 2006
Two years after the multi-award winning 'Conversations With the Unseen' comes Soweto's second album. How's this for a synopsis; it's part one of a two-disc concept package based on the stories of 3 fictional characters living in a run-down flat block in Birmingham. Newsreader Moira Stewart acts as a narrator. Oh, and Soweto spends half his time rapping and the other half playing saxophone. Intrigued or put-off? Well, read on anyway.
It does make for quite a baffling read for those who haven't heard his work, just because it's such an ambitious album concept. Kinch is, however a very impressive saxophonist and lets the jazz songs really aquire a certain wistfulness amongst his blistering sax work. Which acts as a total compliment for his impressive narrative-rapping-storytelling style. There's nothing brash about his delivery, just a confidence, uniqueness and grasp of a totally different lyrical content which really sets him apart from anyone in the rap/hip-hop field.
High points for me, if I have to seperate them out are the stunning '10.30 Appointment' in which one of the album's characters, named 'S' visits the benefit office and has a disagreement about jobs with a Brummie employee (both voiced by Soweto himself). Also 'Adrian's Ballad' sticks out, a slow moving mid-life crisis sort of jazz song (come on, we all know them) with a ridiculously catchy sax refrain and the closing semi-jaunt of 'The House That Love Built'.
It's very different to his previous album; there's more rapping and the jazz songs are a good amount shorter. However, this feels like a definite step up for the man, and quite simply it's a pretty daring, ambitious and incredible record. A British album of the year, surely.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Admirable , 8 Dec 2006
There can be no doubt that altoist Soweto Kinch and his musical cohorts (Tony Miller on drums, Michael Olatuja on drums and Femi Temowo on guitar) are a talented and creative bunch. There can also be no logical argument as to whether jazz and hip-hop make good bedfellows. This fusion is nothing new and Kinch is by no means the first jazz saxophonist to try and infuse the spoken word into his art form. This album particularly, reminds me of Brandford Marsalis' "Scenes In The City", where Marsalis provided a running commentary through the album and that was released way back in 1984. And as far as introducing jazz into rap music is concerned, A Tribe Called Quest practically made it their stock in trade. And let's not forget the fantastic Guru Jazzmatazz projects.
I also don't really care whether the artiste concerned wants to do both, i.e. be a sax player and a rapper or whether he wants to be a sax player who gets a guest rapper in or a rapper who gets a guest sax player in. Whatever. For me it's about whether it works or not. Does the artiste concerned manage to marry to the two art forms in the right proportion and in a way that makes me want to spend my hard earned money on listening to him? Well, my answer is yes and no. There are parts of this album - a day in the life of a young man in a gritty urban jungle somewhere in Birmingham - that are a delight to listen to. Getting Moira Stewart to narrate the opening theme and a couple of the skits including the closing one, is pure genius for a start and the jazz tunes, ("The Mission", "Adrian's Ballad", "Marcus' Crisis", "Out There", "A Friendly Game of Basketball" and "The House That Love Built") with help from Troy Miller on drums and Abram Wilson on trumpet, provide some of the best jazz I've heard, whether from this country or anywhere else. They are worth the price of the CD on their own.
And, thankfully, the skits and even some of the rap & vocal tunes are fun. "Love Gamble" is interesting although I find its beats rather challenging; "Ridez", I love; I also like "So!" and "Who Knows?"; "Padz" introduces us to Bianca Le Bubble, a typical neurotic sounding American journalist, "Expansion" is the closest we get to some soulful vocals and Femi Temowo playing the Nigerian wannabe rapper on "Everybody raps" is a hoot. But there are other parts ("10.30 Appointment", in particular) that while well intentioned, end up being nothing but headache inducing. The interplay between the young man and the "annoying woman" at the benefits office (both performed by Kinch, by the way) are inspiring but the beats played over them to these ears, just sound messy.
Essentially, the hip-hop aspect of this album leaves much more to be desired than does the jazz aspect and personally, I feel the guys need to be a bit more discerning with their beats. That said, I think in terms of musical creativity or artistic experimentation, this kind of thing is very laudable. But if Kinch intends to make a long-term career out of this, then I have worries. The overlap between jazz and rap is very thin. Not many people are going to buy into this because those who will be drawn in by his kind of rap are likely to be put off by the jazz. Likewise, the people who will love what he's doing jazz-wise are very likely to be put off by his rap. Personally, I think I might go and get his earlier album now after listening to this one but as eclectic as my musical tastes are and as much as I might grow to love his work, unless something changes, I'll always be more into the jazz than the hip-hop.
But I'll also always admire a man who's not afraid to take risks. One critic wrote in a magazine recently - and I paraphrase - that only time will tell whether Kinch has created a true masterpiece here, and whether his execution matches his imagination. But, he went on to say, for his envelope-pushing ambition and sheer bravado, he is not to be faulted.
I couldn't agree more
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stimulating, 14 Oct 2006
If you want to be stimulated by the music you hear, this album is a must buy. Soweto mixes jazz with hip-hop plus the audio richness of a radio drama techniques and the lush sounds of Moira Stuart's narrative. The story is told with integiry and humour and the music won't disappoint.
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