Jamboree: The Album

Now here's a really cheering and worthwhile project, which is exactly what you would expect from Oily Cart. It's a theatre company that specialises in shows that can be enjoyed by audiences that include young people and those with disabilities, and place a strong emphasis on collaboration and participation. Their Jamboree project (the Spotlight feature in the last issue) is based on the idea of a mythical travelling band, massively influenced by Balkan brass, and different versions of the production have included Doorstep Jamboree, which travelled to the streets of the young and disabled who were sheltering from COVID-19.

Now comes the album, which involves a fine cast of musicians (some themselves disabled), with vocals from Dunja Botic and spoken word from Jacqui Adeniji-Williams. The mood is upbeat – the songs have titles like ‘Make Some Noise’ or ‘You’re Important' – and the songs impressively varied, from a Balkan-influenced knees-up to the cool and moody ‘The Sky is Your Playground’ or the jaunty ‘Bathing in Bass’, featuring a growling sousaphone riff. And of course there are reminders of the interaction between cast, non-professional musicians and the audience (the six main tracks are interspersed with short ‘soundscape fragments’ of those collaborations). Congratulations to music director and producer Max Reinhardt for the way he has put it all together.