Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/253816
Inner Fire THE SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA W hile Afrobeat was heavily infl uenced by American jazz, there has been little credible cross-pollination between the genres since Fela Kuti invented the Nigerian sound some four decades ago. The Ottawa-based Souljazz Orchestra is one of the few projects that can swing with Swing while playing scorching Afrobeat on the very next track. There is little limit to the band's abil- ities—Guinean popular music (a cover of Gary Bartz NTU Troop's "Celestial Blues") meets salsa ("Agoyo") meets Cuban bolero ("Black Orchid") without missing a beat. A trumpet solo and grooving vibraphone line on "Kingdom Come" sets off the record, while their mellow style, so brilliantly captured on Rising Sun's "Serenity," returns with "As the Crow Flies" and the sedate, ritual- istic "East Flows the River." One expects nothing less than brilliance from this band, and they never fail to deliver. (Strut) —Derek Beres E very once in a while, everyone should see a foreign fi lm, if only to see what humans in other parts of the world are doing besides killing each other. Academy Award nom- inee In Bloom is set in the newly independent Georgia after the collapse of the USSR. Surrounded by violence, 14-year-old best friends Eka (played by Lika Babluani) and Natia (Mariam Bokeria), fi nd it entering their lives in unexpected ways. It is a commonplace through line in the ordinary business of going to school, falling in love and becoming a woman. This is a slow-paced fi lm with no particular destination, yet it maintains suspense due to the underlying unrest in nearly every scene. As the life here unfolds we're antic- ipating violence, but it doesn't come from where we expect. These are ordinary people living ordinary lives in diffi cult times, and for the young girls coming into bloom— like young girls down the block and the world over—it's more about boys and cigarettes than wars and détentes. And if a bomb is dropped, they'll simply be collateral. —AL In Bloom Directed by Nana Ekvtimshvili & Simon Gross art & soul FILM Govind Das & Radha SEMBEH MA FE FE: ROOTS VOLUME ???? W hile attending one of LA's best dance parties, The Lift, last year, Nickodemus opened his set with a searing Guinean remix that forced me to run straight to the DJ booth. Turns out another NY-expat, Charlie Bethel (aka Capt Planet), put his magic touch on Saran's "Tounkan" for Bay Area start-up label Stronghold Sound. That track has remained in my DJ rotation, though with the release of this exceptional Guinean compilation, I now have the original to boot. As with all West African percussive music, the originals—fueled by drummers Sekou Keita and Bondo Sidibe—are fl oor stompers themselves. This is trance music in its purest form: djembes keep rhythm while a balafon fl oats atop, with a seven-minute "Jiho- jiho" and nine-and-a-half minute "Nadiabate" giving the band plenty of time to stretch out. Additional re- mixes by Bay Area staple J. Boogie, Boima and Giku and label founder Dub Snakkr add an electronic edge to this already exceptional collection. (Strong- hold Sound) —DB MUSIC 32 wholelifetimesmagazine.com WLT-FEB-MAR-1-30.indd 32 1/30/14 1:10 AM