The plugged-in direction of the new album also provided the band with an excuse to dig out some of their dusty, forgotten electric instruments from the attic: an ancient vibrato-heavy transistor organ, pawn shop hollow-body electric guitars, a warbling psychedelic tape-echo machine, a cavernous surf-guitar spring reverb unit, even an old Italian-made Elka electric piano. Featuring lyrics sung in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Senegalese Wolof (with borrowings from French and Arabic), the songs touch on subjects ranging from social and political issues to relationships and traditional folk tales. A high-energy multicultural collective from Ottawa, Ontario, the Souljazz Orchestra fuse vintage African, Latin, Caribbean, British, and American sounds. The compositions that arose from the sessions are in a variety of Afro, Latin, Jamaican and Caribbean styles, all connected by a consistent thread of North American soul and jazz sensibilities. Rooted in rhythmically rich musical traditions of the past, the collective have kept their eyes on the future, pushing the boundaries of soul, jazz and tropical styles with a set of heavyweight new songs. Always known for their uncompromising social and political messages, the Canadian collective hit harder than ever on 9 new tracks, outing the hypocrisy of modern day politics, police brutality and the. “Bibinay” “Conquering Lion” and “Kelen Ati Leen” all boast staggering horn lines, while on a slightly deeper level, “Jericho” is a reggae-tinged number inspired by the Biblical story of the city’s walls being brought tumbling down by horns.More fire on Solidarity, the fifth full-length from Canada’s hardest working afro-jazz supergroup, The Souljazz Orchestra. The Souljazz Orchestra return with a brand new studio album for our troubled times, ‘Chaos Theories’, released on Strut on 13 th September. Music is The Souljazz Orchestra and their comrades’ weapon, and their weapon of choice is the horn. Solidarity is a driven by a power–a righteous anger at the state of the world–that cannot, and will not, be denied. And to their great credit, The Souljazz Orchestra have invited musicians hailing from Senegal, Brazil and Jamaica to join their ranks. As befits an album inspired by people coming together across the world to mobilize for positive change, Solidarity embraces music from across the globe – reggae, highlife, semba, samba, salsa, dancehall, biguine jazz and more.
The main inspiration is afrobeat – the pace, the horns, the politically inspired lyrics and the Fela style of declamatory vocals – but what marks Solidarity out is the way its sound is as ambitious and diverse as it is cohesive. On September 18th, the Canadian group Souljazz Orchestra will release their new CD Solidarity on the Strut Records label. Solidarity is a straight up funky, raucous, dancefloor-troubling, riot-provoking monster of an album. No bad thing, sure, but that’s not what The Souljazz Orchestra do. You know, some soul, some jazz, perhaps some orchestral arrangements something that’s nice and pleasant on the ear.
For if, like me, you’re in the unfortunate position of being previously unfamiliar with The Souljazz Orchestra, you could be forgiven for expecting a certain style of music from them. Which, without wishing to rile members of either outfit, is pretty much the same position we find ourselves in with Solidarity. Last week on OKP there was an entertaining review of Funkommunity’s debut LP that basically ran: great album, shame about the band name.