{"id":42043,"date":"2019-01-24T11:30:25","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T09:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/kokoroko-is-back-with-its-soul-and-afrobeat-tainted-jazz\/"},"modified":"2020-04-27T03:36:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T02:36:32","slug":"kokoroko-is-back-with-its-soul-and-afrobeat-tainted-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/kokoroko-is-back-with-its-soul-and-afrobeat-tainted-jazz\/","title":{"rendered":"Kokoroko is back with its soul and afrobeat-tainted jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"

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One year after the release of their debut track “Abusey Junction”, the Londoners announced their first EP with “Uman”.<\/h4>\n

The band’s name ‘Kokoroko’ means ‘be strong’ in Orobo, a language and tribe from Nigeria. The least one could say is that their first track “Abusey Junction” lived up to their name,\u00a0going over 20 million plays on Youtube. It can be supposed that\u00a0Kokoroko<\/em>, their debut EP, will do just as much. Throughout its 4 tracks, the project aims at offering a broader vision of the band’s singular universe, deeply inspired by soul and afrobeat. It takes its roots in West Africa and\u00a0incorporates it in a very londoner jazz aesthetic.<\/p>\n

Lead by trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey, the band is formed by\u00a0leading lights\u00a0from the London jazz community.\u00a0It draws\u00a0as much from the nightlife energy, the musical influences of West African Pentecostal churches, than from references such as\u00a0Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas, Fela Kuti\u00a0and Tony Allen.<\/p>\n