Soul 2 Soul At The Africa Centre
Jazzie B Presents
(Casual Recordings)
Reported Saturday, July 12 2003
Courtesy of Jonty_Adderley @ www.skrufff.com
"It was such an exciting time. There were all these people from all sorts of walks of life and the one thing we had in common was that we were all into and excited by electro music (no one called it hip hop then)."
Speaking to the Independent last week, Soul 2 Soul mainman Jazzie B clearly felt nostalgic as he recalled the salad days of his sound system collective as they helped lay the foundations for what eventually became UK rave culture. Coming up via London's warehouse party circuit of the mid 80s, his crew proffered a mix of reggae, jazz, pop and most appropriately, soul, in unlicensed venues outside the law, mimicking the Jamaican reggae culture for the first time in London, successfully.
Soul 2 Soul At The Africa Centre tells the musical tale of one such event, mixing tunes from Massive Attack singer Horace Andy, Tears for Fears and Funboy Three with the fusion of 70s jazz men like Roy Ayers and Gary Bartz. Also included are sound clips from real parties including a highly amusing closing section where police appear to be trying to arrest the entire party. Jazzy's not saying what happened next (apparently he's saving that for Africa Centre part 2') but the collection is an appropriate representation anyway of what passed for a warehouse party, in the days before rave culture kicked in and changed everything.
|
|
|
