Carrying on from the success of their debut album,
The Shaolin Afronauts once again charter their rather unique path with
this cracking follow up entitled "Quest Under Capricorn." Think 1970's
West Africa, Ethiopia and the pioneering and progressive avant-garde
jazz artists of that same period.
Opening track "Brooklyn" sees the band in a sprightly setting with a
rock steady bass groove, signature big horns and the growliest baritone
ever committed to record, engrossing stuff right from the off! Afrobeat
deep jazz is next with "Gayanamede Prelude," highlighting the beautiful
production and arranging skills of main man Ross McHenry. Some rather
choice improvising soprano sax from his jazziness Andrew Crago, over
some dense arrangements which can include anything up to a nine piece
horn section!!
"Winds Of Gayanamede" is up next, jacking up the highly emotional
intensity of this compelling album. There's a real downtempo feel to
the first part of the album and it will no doubt draw you in to their
secret arcane world, especially track 5, the killer title track "Quest
Under Capricorn." Yes it's 'Enter The Dragon Time' with this moody
modal piece of mellifluous and majesterial magic! This is jazz music
all filtered through a free jazz approach that is quite stunning - a
landmark session. One of those recordings seeping through with so much
power and an emotional, deep connection is felt emphatically too. This
outfit ascend right here, right now on a higher plane of existence. The
combustible influences that shape this album are still relevant today
and SA do it with such class and panache.
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Afro Jazz hasn’t reached the level of popularity that it deserves to
be at, yet its style has more years behind it than smooth jazz. The
sound of African jazz and retro 70s soul are the inspiration behind
“Shaolin Afronauts”, an amazing Australian band founded in 2009. Their
new CD, “Quest Under Capricorn”, released July 16th on the Freestyle
Records label, is good soul seasoned with just the right touch of
musical spices and influences. Now, please bear in mind that no matter
what else I say about a specific track from this point on, this phrase
still applies: “It has lots of soul and 70s flavor.”
John Shaft (shut your mouth!!) could’ve shown his very cool swagger
to the intro record “Brooklyn” which exudes funk, and I do mean the good
kind. “Brooklyn” starts like the beginning of an action movie, and its
overlapping horns and harmonies blend tightly with the band. The middle
section features a blistering baritone sax solo. Just before track 3,
there’s a riveting prelude with wind blowing sound effects, an echo
pedal electric piano, and horns playing softly with classic Gil Evans
style jazz harmony.
The track “Los Angeles” is a serious piece of music, beginning with
flute and electric keys to set up the horn section and band. Kevin Van
Der Zwaag pushes a strong funk beat on the drums, while the soprano sax
attacks the solo with lines reminiscent of 70’s horn man Bennie Maupin
of the Headhunters. The arrangement builds in intensity as the horns
break into an all-out brawl of notes, and then break back down to the
reflective tones of the solo electric fender Rhodes piano. The title
track, “Quest Under Capricorn” really shows the band’s range with nice
unison flutes and low brass answering back.
The Shaolin Afronauts are more than just a band with a cool name.
They are exceptional players with a dynamic style who are creating great
music that is just too hard to find, unless you go to a vintage record
store. They blend well, the cuts are never sloppy, and the mix sounds
great on my stereo and even better with headphones. Jazz aficionados and
music lovers of all genres who are seeking soul with an order of
something special on the side will find “Quest Under Capricorn” to be
the crème de la crème. Don’t walk, run and pick up your copy today.
You’ll thank me later.
bamalovesoul.com
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Originally conceived as a side
project for members of Adelaide soul outfit the Transatlantics, as an
outlet to sate a developing appetite for various African and jazz
styles, Shaolin Afronauts have rapidly developed into one of the
country's most sophisticated young big bands.
If their debut album of first takes, Flight of the Ancients,
constituted a promising if somewhat raw entree to their recording
career, Quest Under Capricorn sees them sink their collective teeth into
something altogether more substantial and satisfying.
Expanding
to an 18-piece line-up that contains no fewer than 10 horns could easily
have proven a case of biting off more than they could chew. Fortunately,
the acumen of the band's musical director, bass player, producer and
primary composer, Ross McHenry, and the influence of an American mentor,
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, who has worked with leviathans such as Wayne
Shorter, Brad Mehldau and Quincy Jones, have ensured that the sophomore
album is expertly arranged, even if the intros and outros might have
been more variable.
There's certainly no lack of imagination, brilliance of chops or
abatement in intensity. Indeed, the wild free-form inhibition displayed
in sections of Saturn's Dance and End of a Sun references the anarchy
and experimentation of vintage Sun Ra recordings.
In the latter, the Afronauts' trombones, trumpets and saxophones buzz like angry hornets.
Elsewhere,
the brass billows over solid Afro rhythms. Winds Across Gayanamede and
Amhara evince Ethio-jazz and that genre's champion, Mulatu Astatke,
while exhibiting Kuti-esque afrobeat foundations. Los Angeles, on the
other hand, hits a groove more reminiscent of US keyboard king Herbie
Hancock's 70s workouts with the Headhunters.
theaustralian.com.au
Shaolin Afronauts - Winds across Gayanamede from
Ross McHenry on
Vimeo.
The most talented, interesting and challenging
of all Adelaide musicians is the collective that feeds the bands The
Transatlantics, The Atlantic Street Band, Max Savage and the False Idols
(plus many more groups popping up almost every other month). This
talent, intrigue and experimentation are deftly represented on Quest Under Capricorn, the
second album from The Shaolin Afronauts (to date the highlight group of
the collective). Originally an Afro-beat ensemble infamous for their
energetic and mystical live shows, which would see up to 13 members don
cloaks on a small stage to bust out Afro jazz seemingly direct from 70s
Nigeria, the second album finds the Afronauts evolving. They are no
longer limited to the Afro genre.
Bandleader Ross McHenry travelled to Los
Angeles under the tutelage of composer Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. The
compositions from that pilgrimage base this album, which resulted in a
live show at the Festival Centre with 18 players, followed by a quick
recording session. The result is a mature, eclectic set of Afro
influenced jazz rhythms, which can only be described as raw jazz. This
spirited, rough edge drives beasts such as the schizophrenic End of a Sun,
which sounds like a jazz apocalypse one moment before being rescued by a
beautiful gathering of horns riding an angelic groove the next. While
the magnificent Amhara switches from Afro lounge to a Middle Eastern groove with ease. Quest Under Capricorn
is a major step forward for the Afronauts and with more albums coming
from many of the collective’s other bands this year, 2012 should be the
year that one of Adelaide’s finest gathering of artists will be
celebrated across the land and hopefully the globe.
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The
Shaolin Afronauts are a jazz/afrobeat collective based in Adelaide, Australia.
Quest Under Capricorn, recorded in January this year with an expanded 18-piece band, is the follow up to last year’s debut album
Flight of the Ancients, an infectious record that stuck so rigidly to its afrobeat template you could easily mistake it for
Fela Kuti
on first listen. For the uninitiated, Fela Kuti played a kind of music
that he named “Afrobeat”, a combination of American jazz and funk
blended with West African highlife music, traditional Yoruba music and
chanted vocals.
On first listen Quest Under Capricorn feels like a continuation of their first album.
Winds Across Gayanamede opens
with a funky guitar riff, before breaking into a classic Afrobeat
sounding groove where free-flowing horns are accompanied by some quite
brilliant drumming. However there is evidence that the Afronauts are
expanding their sound into new directions. There are some distinctly
Avant-garde jazz moments – witness the wild horn section wig-outs on
End of a Sun and
Saturn’s Dance. While album highlight
Quest Under Capricorn would not sound out of place on a
Ennio Morricone
film score, its moody horns lending it a bristling intensity. Certainly
this record seems more serious than their first, with a greater
emphasis on song structure and variation, but you feel that some of the
carefree fun of their more groove-based debut has been lost too.
It has been said that there are no original ideas in art. Listening
to this album may provoke the question; Is it possible to recreate a
sound from the past whist still making music that sounds fresh and
vital?
The Cinematic Orchestra cleverly achieved this on
Everyday by fusing their live jazz improvisation with turntable trickery, electronica, and the emotive vocals of
Fontella Bass and
Roots Manuva.
The Afronauts seem less willing to experiment in this way and you can’t
help but feel they are being somewhat straightjacketed by their musical
influences.
Amhara is a case in point. It’s a brilliantly realised piece of Ethio-jazz, no doubt inspired by the work of
Mulatu Astatke, but it somehow leaves you cold because it sounds so much like its source material.
The Shaolin Afronauts are clearly a very talented bunch of musicians,
and Quest Under Capricorn is a sophisticatedalbum that builds on the
promise of its predecessor, but it fails to stir your emotions. Fela
Kuti’s powerful, often politically motivated vocals were an integral
part of his music that gave his work an emotional intensity that The
Afronauts cannot match. Ultimately, Quest Under Capricorn is an easy
album to like, but a hard one to love.
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