Phil Ranelin. Image: Simon Green/eventful

Dancers. Image: Simon Green/eventful

Dwight Trible. Image: Simon Green/eventful

Fatima. Image: Simon Green/eventful

When I looked through the London Jazz Festival’s schedule a couple of weeks back I was thrilled to see the incorporation of Build an Ark and IG Culture within its list of performances. Bands like this, who offer a more leftfield interpretation of jazz, don’t often seem to get the recognition they deserve within big festival schedules. It is hardly surprising that Karen P is to be thanked for widening their exposure. Her promotional work with Broad Casting has been responsible for putting on high quality nights in London for some time now and this is no exception. The night is impeccably managed to the point that the projection of Red Bull Music Academy’s real-time video makes it feel like you are immersed in vintage jazz footage.

Sets from Karen P, IG Culture, and Kindred Spirits/Rush Hour’s Antal set the tone with African rhythms and jazz old and new, and, suddenly, the venue is filled. When IG Culture’s Zen Badizm Workshop band take to the stage, the prevailing aesthetic of the night is indicated: behind the musicians, IG Culture’s album cover is projected onto a screen, featuring a large silhouette of Africa shaped by the faces of Marcus Garvey, Sun Ra, and J-Dilla amongst other figures. The artwork conveys a strong sense of historical Pan-Africanism suffused with contemporary urban culture. The music also reflects this feeling, as Zen Badizm revisits the conscious sounds of Tribe, Impulse!, and Strata East through a London Soul lens. Though I’m usually sceptical of stage adaptations of producer-led albums, IG Culture has clearly thought this one through. This is a consolidated performance of an exciting live project that IG has stylishly arranged and that is held together by an impeccable rhythm section formed by Richard Spaven on drums, Kaidi Tatham on keys, Akwasi Mensah on bass, and IG himself on percussion. The band is tight and meticulous, and it doesn’t take long for the dancers to assemble in front of the stage as a result. The routines of Jerry IDJ, Gary Nurse, Sean Graham and others burst with energy and animate the audience. On top of this, Fatima’s loose soulful voice and jagged hip hop delivery makes for a particularly fresh rendition of Maiden Voyage. But my highlight of the set is Eric Appapoulay’s elegant and discreet guitar, which integrates perfectly with Tatham’s sparse chords and the relentless groove held by Spaven and Mensah. The Zen Badizm project is growing and I can’t wait to see what shape it takes on next.

With the likes of Phil Ranelin and Dwight Trible in the band, the transition from Zen Badizm to Build an Ark feels, perhaps inevitably, like a move from the inspired to the inspiration. Build an Ark are visually imposing, for a start. The band’s frontline, composed of Ranelin and Trible, as well as reedman Tracy Wannomae and singer Waberi Jordan, evokes an era in which robes, beads, and cosmic consciousness were the norm. Their new album on Kindred Spirits, Love Part 1, is also a substantial proposition that continues to spread the message of unity – “we must extend a hand of peace to all mankind”, sings Trible – which the band, and the label more widely, have been communicating for some time now. Build an Ark’s live performance integrates elements from African music, readings of mystic Sufi poetry, and a whole lot of love. Like much of the spiritual jazz that they take their cues from, Build an Ark discard conventional head/solo/head form to inspire a stream of incandescent energy and organic growth. The freedom provided by this simple approach is used intelligently, constructing extended, textured, and colourful compositions with shaded latin pulses. Though solos are on the economical side, the result is a heavy sea of sound that gradually envelops the audience and holds it in raptures throughout the performance.

The vocal rendition of A Love Supreme’s Acknowledgement takes on the incantation style of Coltrane’s epic version. The sparing collaboration between Tribe’s deep baritone voice and the gossamer flutterings of Wannomae’s soprano capture the sense of disparate higher spiritual powers that inspired Coltrane. Trible’s intense ululations, based around the original suite’s mantra, emphasise the piece’s wondrous bass motif and feel like a giant slowly stepping up a mountain. Perhaps the tribute lacks a certain authoritative toughness, but Wannomae and Ranelin’s subsequent ‘speaking in tongues’ solos bring a welcome edge to Build an Ark’s performance. Whilst Wannomae’s fiery tenor possesses an unruffled quality reminiscent of an early Gato Barbieri, Ranelin’s warm and dignified trombone is simply lush. Ranelin shatters the calm with raucous vibratos, yet his phrasing is carefully controlled. You can sense a mild reverence towards him in the group dynamic, and this is totally justifiable: his performance evinces his depth of experience and his position as an original trombone stylist. If this playing does not deserve to be in the jazz festival I struggle to know what does.

Build an Ark’s new anthem-in-the-making, Sunflowers in my Garden, conveys a sense of peace after the storm. As this gentle song plays I notice that Build an Ark’s overpowering message of love is starting to scratch at my cynicism. Nevertheless, I decide to let it wash over me for a while, as there is no denying the energy, sincerity, and talent with which it is communicated. In fact, Carlos Niño, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, and Build an Ark possess a real communicative quality that makes the whole evening feel like a celebration of transatlantic community. This feeling is only heightened when the set closes with Pharoah Sanders’ You’ve Got to Have Freedom, one of the most iconic tunes of the early days of the British jazz dance scene. Though the strong symbolic references made by the two bands to past musical traditions and African and Eastern cultures suggest a yearning for an imaginary world more congenial than the current L.A. and London, the enthusiasm displayed by the musicians, DJs, dancers, and punters make of the evening something not short of an uplifting commemoration of the two cities. This atmosphere is beautiful to witness.

John M. Gómez

For those that could not be there as well as those who want to be transported back you can now listen to live recordings of the gig at Red Bull Academy Radio.