Rafiki Jazz

From Brazil, Gambia, Mauritius, Senegal, Tanzania, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe

Three continents, one groove
Did you hear the one about the Englishman, the Colombian, the Zimbabwean, the Brazilian, the Gambian? It might sound like a set-up for the world's most convoluted punchline, but there's no complication where Rafiki Jazz are involved. Sure, there might be huge geographical distances between their many places of origin, but this is a collective that's dispensed with both map and rulebook, in the process finding sizeable musical common ground and shared traditions. While region-specific instruments are to the fore - a ripple of kora here, a rumble of steelpan there - it all makes sense; the kind of unforced, effortlessly natural cultural collaboration to strike fear into the nearest BNP supporter. And, of all the superlatives that their delightfully open, brilliantly sunshine sound has prompted, the band themselves have come up with the best description - "where beatbox meets berimbau and Brazil greets Banjul".

(Biography written by Nige Tassell 2010)