London Brew – London Brew (2023, Concord Jazz)
If you have been following the press about the London jazz scene, you know about a new crop of musicians who draw on diverse music that connects with and engages a young, energetic audience. Skeptics who question whether the music matches the hype should listen to the new album London Brew, which features many of these new stars. In this post, we aim to introduce you to the musicians behind London Brew and recommend albums by its key players. Welcome to the London Brew Starter Kit!
Like many albums completed in the last year, disruption from the pandemic is a big part of the story. The music featured on London Brew is inspired by Miles Davis’ Bitches’ Brew and was initially planned to be presented in a series of 2020 concerts to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the iconic Davis album. The first of these concerts was to be presented at The Barbican in London in early 2020 but was shut down due to the pandemic. In lockdown and unable to gig, the musicians decided to make a record from the music instead. For three days in December 2020, the London Brew band recorded hours of music, edited down to 90 minutes and now presented on two CDs or LPs if you buy the physical format.
(The London Brew band: L-R – Shabaka Hutchings, Tom Herbert, Nikolaj Torp Larsen, Nubya Garcia, Dave Okumu, Raven Bush, Dan See, Martin Terefe, Tom Skinner, Benji B, Nick Ramm, men with cap and wool hat unknown, Theon Cross at far right; photo credit Nathan Weber)
Regardless of the format you buy, the band you hear is a miniature who’s who of the young musicians making a name in the London jazz scene. The musical settings on London Brew are the work of producer Martin Terefe and guitarist Dave Okumu, who together took samples from Davis’ Bitches’ Brew, and used these excerpts to frame new performances. DJ Benji B then took these prepared tapes and played them live to the musicians during the recordings. Nubya Garcia’s tenor sax and Shabaka Hutchings’ reeds are at the heart of the music; the reeds bob and weave and play off each other throughout London Brew. One delight of the album is figuring out who is playing what, especially with pairs of saxes, keyboards, and drums – see below for a breakdown of the instrumentation.
Other instrumental highlights pop up and surprise you throughout. The drums of Tom Skinner and Dan See drive the record and occasionally lock together into a storm of rhythm, such as at the start of the second track, “London Brew, Part 2.” Theon Cross’ booming tuba appears on “More Ning Prayers,” giving the tune a contour and structure that contrast the ambiguous forms elsewhere on the record. Keyboards from Nikolaj Torp Larsen and Nick Ramm clash in jagged zones of dissonance through the two parts of the title track. The album closes out with serene amplified violin from Raven Bush. Even at an hour and a half of music without easily-accessed melodic lines, hooks, choruses, and other structure hallmarks, it all flows from intensity to atmospheric beauty and back – and it’s never boring!
Once you’ve absorbed and enjoyed London Brew, try listening to the music of the key musicians responsible for this record – it will be well rewarded.
(Shabaka Hutchings playing bass clarinet. Image: dirkneven1966 at The Vinyl Factory)
First up is Shabaka Hutchings – it’s hard to imagine London Brew happening without him. Hutchings (also known as Shabaka) first made his mark in 2013 with the debut album by Sons of Kemet, the band where Hutchings plays with Theon Cross and Tom Skinner, plus a second drummer (Eddie Hick since 2018). Sons of Kemet has perfected a style of riff-laden, groove-based music that is Afrocentric (and so cool), often combined with poetry about social justice and identity. The twin drums and tuba are already massively rhythmic, but Hutchings’s cyclical riffing patterns increase the intensity to 11. His approach sounds like the circular patterns of African drumming translated onto the saxophone. With all the energy, it’s easy to see why this band has made such an impression. This clip on YouTube shows you what it’s all about.
Hutchings is really prolific, and you can also check out his recordings with Shabaka and the Ancestors, as well as his solo album released as Shabaka, African Culture, where he concentrates on multi-instrumental Pharoah Sanders like atmospherics.
The Comet is Coming – Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam (2022, Impulse)
Link to Spotify
Link to Apple Music
But the most compelling entry point is the most recent record by The Comet is Coming, Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam. Why here? This band creates energy and spontaneity captured in the story of how they came together. In an interview with M magazine, band drummer Max Hallett said he was playing a gig with keyboardist Dan Leavers when an audience member jumped on stage and started playing the saxophone. This was Hutchins, of course, though Hallett and Leavers had no idea who he was at the time. The sound they “created [was] an explosive shockwave of energy that stunned us all,” so they decided to record together and have since continued to hone their synth/drums/sax sound that leans into England’s famous rave culture. We dare you to stop dancing around your room after you put this album on! Also, if you’re in the New York area, you can catch The Comet Is Coming at Summerstage on August 3rd. You know we’ll be there!
(Nubya Garcia in 2019 Photograph: Peter Van Breukelen/Redferns at The Guardian)
Next, you must check out the other saxophone player on London Brew, Nubya Garcia. You may have heard of her already, even before you read this piece – Garcia has made a terrific splash in the music world, and her star has just started rising. Garcia released her ebullient debut EP Nubia’s 5ive in 2017, which features strong tunes, a dynamic band, and music that respects the jazz tradition while embracing an up-to-date rhythmic language. Garcia is prominently featured on the scene-defining We Out Here compilation (where she plays on five of the comp’s nine tracks) and made high-profile gigs, like playing to a packed house at Royal Albert Hall.
Nubya Garcia – Source (2020, Concord Jazz)
However, the place to start with Garcia’s music is Source, her debut full album. Source is uplifting from beginning to end, shaped by Garcia’s fully formed soloing and her fresh rhythm section of Daniel Casimer on bass, Joe Armon-Jones on piano and electric keyboards, and Sam Jones on drums. The album mixes various styles that draw from Garcia’s roots in the Caribbean, such as the Jamaican dub title track, or the nod to the bedrock of Latin American rhythms, “La cumbia me está llamando.” Elsewhere Garcia deploys soaring jazz harmonies on “The Message Continues,” and graceful balladry on “Together Is a Beautiful Place to Be.” Another strength of the album is its sincere connection to Garcia’s past. Garcia calls the album a story “about my heritage, my ancestry, exploring those places and those stories from my parents and my grandparents.” Lovely stuff – Garcia is only 31, and we can expect lots of great music to come.
Like Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings, the music of Dave Okumu is driven by identity, and has a passion for creating new, relevant art that explores the past and the present. Okumu is the son of Kenyan immigrants and grew up in Vienna until his family moved to England at the age of ten. He has been on the scene for years and is one of the older players on London Brew at 46 years old. Okumu has been the guitar player in the indy rock band The Invisible, whose eponymous record from 2009 was nominated for a Mercury prize and was iTunes Album of the Year. The Invisible’s brand of mumbled vocals with subtly dark instrumentals framing sunny lyrics still sounds pretty good but only hints at the potential realized on Okumu’s new album, I Came From Love.
Dave Okumu & The 7 Generations – I Came From Love (2022)
Link to Bandcamp
Okumu says he regards I Came From Love as his first solo record because the music and themes represent his identity and history. The album draws from hip-hop, spoken word poetry, rhythm and blues, rock, jazz, and world music and is intensely autobiographical and political. One highlight is “Blood Ah Go Run,” which uses spoken narration from newspaper reports of a 1980’s fire that killed 13 Black teens. The track is propelled by thick, slightly funky baselines and backbeat even as the grim subject enfolds. Elsewhere, the album leans heavily into lyrics and poetry about slavery, Black identity, reclaiming history, and justice. Even though the issues are heavy, the music is not depressing, and the detailed production is often fascinating, with some tracks using layers of samples, effects, and instrumental detail. Given the variety, your mileage may vary from track to track, but the album’s range of approaches and ambition is impressive and easily recommended. Like the albums of Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings, a personal story fuels a clear and compelling artistic vision.
Tom Skinner – Voices of Bishara (2022, International Anthem)
Like Okumu, drummer Tom Skinner is a scene veteran who has just released his first solo album, the fascinating EP Voices of Bishara. After playing with several jazz, electronic, and rock groups, Skinner co-founded Sons of Kemet in 2011 with Hutchings. Recently, Skinner has been the drummer for Thom Yorke’s non-Radiohead side project, The Smile. However, Voices of Bishara is Skinner’s first solo album, and he uses many of the same players from London Brew – Hutchins, Garcia, and bassist Matthew Herbert, joined by cello player Kareem Dayes. The album’s concept is right up our alley at TNB – Skinner says that during the pandemic, he found himself listening to Abdul Wadud’s By Myself, and he conceived this album as a reaction to the singular beauty of Wadud’s masterpiece. Skinner titled Voices of Bishara after the self-released imprint Wadud used for his classic, Bishara, which means “bringer of good news.” Skinner says his album is “an attempt to put something truthful into the world, through collaboration and community, at a time of rising dishonesty and disinformation.”
While this release is compact at six songs in 27 minutes, it makes a big impact using deep, resonant lines built around bass and cello under the double tenor sax front-line growl. Skinner explains that he arrived at an EP length after recording hours of music and using an extensive post-production process to boil it down to the most impactful material. This music reaches an apex during the tune “The Journey,” built around an interlocking, loping theme with an extroverted cello solo and the propulsive atmospherics created by post-production on “Voices (Of the Past).” Voices of Bishara was one of the remarkable releases of 2022, drawing on an ideal mix of spontaneity in the studio and deliberate post-production.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the London Brew Starter Kit! Hopefully, this has given you points of entry to appreciate and follow one of the world’s most exciting music scenes and to become part of the community of fans supporting these great musicians. We’ll keep following London Brew here and share what we find at The Necessary Blues.
London Brew album breakdown:
We promised to give you more detailed information about the players on London Brew and what they’re doing. Here’s the personnel and instrumentation according to the back cover of the album:
Benji B – “sonic recycling”
Raven Bush – electric violin, electronics
Theon Cross – tuba
Nubya Garcia – saxophone, flute
Shabaka Hutchings – saxophone, woodwinds
Tom Herbert – electric bass, double bass
Martin Terefe – guitar, electronics
Dave Okumu – electric guitar
Nick Ramm – Piano, synthesizers
Nikolaj Torp Larsen – synthesizers, melodica
Dan See – drums, percussion
Tom Skinner – drums, percussion
On an album that has multiple pairings of musicians playing the same instruments, it’s an interesting challenge to figure out who’s playing what. This is especially the case with Hutchings and Garcia, who are both credited as playing “saxophone” (that’s tenor sax), and Hutchings is also credited on “woodwinds.” On London Brew, Hutchings mostly sticks to the “woodwinds” (bass clarinet and B flat clarinet), but occasionally Hutchings and Garcia both play tenor at the same time. Even then, you can tell them apart. If you listen carefully, you can hear the difference between the two on tenor – Garcia has a lighter sound, and Hutchings has a more percussive, sharper attack. I probably don’t have it all down correctly, but here’s what I’m hearing Hutchings and Garcia playing:
“London Brew“: Hutchings on bass clarinet throughout; Garcia enters at 4:50 on tenor sax; Hutchings plays the B flat clarinet after 8:00; tenor sax at 10:00 played by Garcia; at 19:00 Hutchings on bass clarinet and Garcia on tenor sax in duet; at 22:00 both tenors playing at the same time – Hutchings playing short percussive phases, and Garcia playing longer, higher ones.
“London Brew, Part 2“: At 2:45, Garcia on tenor sax (played altissimo); at 5:20, woodwind counterpoint figure (oboe?) played by Hutchings; from 9:00 B flat clarinet (Hutchings) to 12:50.
“Miles Chases New Voodoo In The Church“: from 0:25 to 3:00, Garcia solos on tenor played through wah-wah pedal; at 3:10, Hutchings on B flat clarinet; at 4:50, Garcia on tenor in the background briefly.
“Nu Sha Ni Sha Nu Oss Ra“: This song is a feature for the tenor saxophonists, who both play tenor throughout. I believe it’s Garcia playing starting at 0:25 and Hutchings playing the second theme at 1:50; at 4:00, the saxophonists trade improvised lines until 7:00, and Garcia then plays to the end. Because I think Garcia plays the main theme, I believe Hutchings is playing the “breath” sounds (played through a tenor) that start and end the song.
“It’s One Of These“: This one features Hutchings, who solos on bass clarinet, first buried in the mix at 1:25, and then out front from 2:00 to 4:20. From 4:30 to the end, there are intermittent accents on tenor sax behind guitar and keyboards, played by what sounds like two sax players – Garcia and Hutchings.
“Bassics“: Garcia is credited by the liner notes as playing flute, and the only flute that I hear on the record occurs at 0:25. I hear no reeds on this track.
“Mor Ning Prayers“: The two reed players are featured again on this track. From 0:28 to 0:55, Garcia plays an opening theme, with Hutchings’s bass clarinet mixed way back. A guitar is featured from 0:55 to 3:37, and then Garcia and Hutchings return, now both on tenor. I believe Hutchings plays the main theme from 3:27, with Garcia joining with embroidered phases at 4:00. Hutchings continues with a repeated melodic phrase to 5:30, which goes into another guitar solo. The saxophones return at 7:45, this time with Garcia playing first and Hutchings joining at 8:10. Hutchings plays a repeated phrase, then returns to the theme he played at 5:30, and then ends the tune with a vibrato heavy slap-tongue phrase. Garcia is mixed to the left channel and Hutchings to the right – that will help you sort it out!
“Raven Flies Low“: This is a beautiful feature for Raven Bush’s violin. Hutchings plays a repeated background motif on the (B flat) clarinet at 3:15. At 4:55, there is riffing which sounds like the bass clarinet (Hutchings), which is way back in the mix. At 6:40, Hutchings’ B flat clarinet appears in the background, and at 7:40 comes to the front of the mix – Hutchings plays a long clarinet solo (7:40-10:20). I don’t hear any playing by Nubya Garcia on this track.
I hope you enjoy that analysis! One of the pleasures of music appreciation is trying to pull apart the music with your ears and figure out what’s going on. Please email me if you have corrections – I’d love to make it as accurate as possible!