Features

In the May/June WholeNote, see page 20, I wrote about the eight-piece band Kokoroko, a revolutionary group of young Black musicians from the United Kingdom, coming to the Toronto Jazz Festival for a June 25 appearance at the Phoenix Concert Theatre.on June 25, Toronto. My first image of them was ten or so years ago – a photograph of a frontline of Black women horn players - trombone, trumpet and saxophone. It looked like it could be a jazz band, but when I finally heard the music it was not landing as such to me. 

It turns out that the origin story of Kokoroko is firmly rooted in afrobeats. This music, out of Nigeria, names as a source Fela Kuti, who blended highlife, traditional African drums from Nigeria, American funk, electric instruments, and lots of horns. Since then, Kokoroko  have continued to expand compositionally: elements of hip-hop, gospel, palm-wine, soca, Jamaican sound system, and yes, jazz, with all these influences beautifully woven into an original sound that includes the original hornline-infused afrobeats of Fela Kuti’s era and highlife, along with hip-hip, grime from London’s electronic dance music scene, dancehall and gospel. 

As a music writer, I’m interested in process, how they compose, and so I  dug further into this in an interview with co-founders trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey and percussionist Onome Edgeworth.   

Kokoroko means “be strong” in the Urhobo language from southern Nigeria. I don’t know what they have in store for us on June 25, but judging from the soca-influenced “Sweetie”, I strongly suspect we’ll all be singing, “Sweetie make my heart beat bounce!”  In these challenging times, I anticipate a joyful gathering. There will be much dancing. 

A young girl, her face alight with wonder and recognition appears in an ever-changing  space defined by floating wooden fence posts … 

Suddenly exploding near her a thunderous music of movement and sound …. a magnificent young horse rearing and neighing so close and unexpected …  but this beautiful creature is being whipped by a fierce looking man with a boy by his side in a shocking juxtaposition of beauty and cruelty …

The other day, I had the wonderful chance for an early look, in rehearsal, at  She Holds Up the Stars, a new multidisciplinary work written and directed by multi-award winning artist Sandra Laronde for her company Red Sky Performance, to be performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall Sunday April 19.

Sixty years ago, Vesnivka Choir stepped onto the Toronto music scene – young girls whose voices were uncertain but full of promise. Their conductor, Halyna Kvitka Kondracki, wasn’t much older but had clarity of vision and purpose – to share her passion for Ukrainian choral music and culture.

I didn’t want this to be the story, but it is the story. Jazz, segregation, the Musicians’ Union and why jazz and Black musicians at the Pilot (and other venues) are still a big deal.

This past summer, an early music band was asked for a promotional group photo and a name for a concert at Toronto Harbourfront’s Music Garden. They realized they had neither, so they searched for a Renaissance painting to capture their spirit. The image they chose, by a follower of imaginative painter Hieronymus Bosch, shows a group inside a giant egg gathered around a book of music, singing and playing – and so they dubbed themselves The Musicians of the Egg.