Ronnie Scott’s has squeezed many a big band onto its bijou stage — but few so diverse and multi-talented as this crew. First up, Lokkhi Terra, the Anglo-Bangla-Cuban collective helmed by classically-trained jazz pianist Kishon Khan, whose musical vision stems from time spent living in Havana, exploring links between Cuban genres such as rumba and timba and the complex rhythms of his South Asian heritage before finding like minds back home.
“We mix music from communities who hang out in London,” said Khan, flanked by musicians such as Nepalese bassist Suman Joshi, Turkish kit drummer Tansay Omar, English trombonist Justin Thurgur and Cuban conguero Oreste Noda. “We have different traditions in our blood.”
Jazz was the bridge: a classic Cuban jam was delivered in a rapid-fire Bangladeshi time signature. Singers Sohini Alam and Aanon Siddiqua, grooving in emerald silk saris, lent Bangla lyrics to tunes such as Kande, which wove in the chugging, off-kilter sound of Nigerian Afrobeat and paved the way for the arrival of Dele Sosimi, former Fela Kuti keyboardist turned UK Afrobeat ambassador. Sosimi’s You No Fit Touch Am crackled with his signature baritone but here, driven by congas, cowbell and the bata drums and Yoruba-language chants of Cuban rumbero Gerardo de Armas, a revelation, it came rejuvenated by Afro-Cuban rhythms.
A second set featured tracks from the Cubafrobeat album, including high spots from guitarist Phil Dawson, trumpeter Graeme Flowers and Tamar Osborne on sax and jazz flute. An Irakere cover, Aguanile Bonko, let Cuban singer and multi-instrumentalist Javier Camilo shine; Kuti’s RofoRofo Fight was fired by Sosimi’s growl and the 14-strong line-up, a multicultural juggernaut united by music, and by London.
