Joola Jazz

Eight years since the release of his previous record Alien Cartoon, Senegalese electro-jazz artist IBAAKU has returned with a stunning new project, Joola Jazz. Exhibiting a true alchemy of musical influences, IBAAKU’s sound blends the traditional Casamance music of his ancestral homeland with the infectious sounds of African electronic club music, the edgy urban rhythms of hip-hop and the spiritual spontaneity of jazz. The result is a highly charismatic and richly layered album that simultaneously draws inspiration from the traditions of history and the technologies of modernity.

Joola Jazz opens with ‘Bombolong’ and ‘Bukut’, two intoxicatingly danceable tracks with crystalline electronic melodies that soar over fat synth basslines and dense polyrhythmic drumming. ‘Jazz Griots (feat Alibeta)’ functions as a groovy acoustic piano interlude which provides an ingenious contrast in texture and a sense of improvisational freedom. Disorientating microtonal melodic motifs and metallic percussive sounds dominate on ‘Ajamat Computer’, with alto saxophone jazz lines and electric piano swells taking centre stage on ‘Bumiro’. The album ends with ‘Ancestral Intelligence’, a spiritual climax in which a pulsating, almost mechanical beat wrestles rhythmically with nimble djembé drumming. At once historically grounded and forward-thinking, IBAAKU’s Joola Jazz is intellectually provocative and an uninhibited sonic joy.