It starts with a rumble of percussion and kalimba thumb piano, which leads into a chanted chorus – “We be all Africans now” – before Idris Ackamoor moves in with a cool, driving alto saxophone solo. The new studio album from this US west coast band is an impressively fresh-sounding affair, considering that they started in the early 70s, broke up at the end of that decade, and then reformed when it became clear that there was still a demand for their Afro-jazz-funk fusion. Ackamoor developed his style after taking the original band on a lengthy tour of Africa, living in Ghana, Kenya and Ethiopia, and the best tracks here match African influences against the horn solos, as in the furious Rhapsody in Berlin, or the vocal-and-percussion work-out Traponga. There are inevitable echoes of Fela Kuti and the space jazz of Sun Ra in this engaging set.
