It’s taken the world 30-odd years to catch up with Idris Ackamoor, the time between the trio of Afro-jazz albums he cut in the 1970s and his re-emergence in 2016 with We Be All Africans. Ackamoor (born Bruce Baker in 1951) grew up in Chicago and was mentored by pianist Cecil Taylor before forming a group he led on a cross-Africa odyssey, presenting his music with theatrical panache – he still takes to the stage in pharaonic headdress.
Ghanaian Afrobeat is one of the flavours in play, notably on the driving opener Tinoge, but his tenor sax often recalls the avant-gardism of Pharoah Sanders and he can be stately and lyrical when he chooses, as on Papyrus. He also plays keytar (a glorified synth), favours a violin and guitar in his six piece line-up and overlays his music with Sun Ra-style chants dedicated to ecological themes on tracks such as Warrior Dance. His Soliloquy for Michael Brown, the young black man gunned down by Missouri police in 2014, has no words, Ackamoor’s tenor moving from grief to rage over clattering congas. The production of Malcolm Catto, of London’s Heliocentrics, adds subtle, atmospheric touches, notably on the squelching dub of Land of Ra. Deep and inspirational.
