Just Have to Grow

Co-produced by Nick ‘Midas Touch’ Page (Dub Colossus, Syriana) and recorded live in one room over two days at the Fishmarket Studios in North London, the debut album from multicultural London outfit Awalé is an impressive, jazzy affair. This is certainly not a criticism: if anything, Awalé have a sort of brave, anything-goes experimentalism that marks them out from the current crop of London fusion outfits. With members hailing from France, Slovakia, Tunisia, the UK and Cuba (the in-demand conguero Oreste Noda), their blend of Afro-beat, Balkan music, Ethiopian funk, Latin jazz and Maghreb Berber music might easily have sounded murky. The band’s innate musical empathy means it is anything but. Bolstered, perhaps, by consistent gigging at London’s hippest venues – from the Notting Hill Arts Club to Hackney’s New Empowering Church and the irrepressible Passing Clouds in Dalston – this eight-strong crew have laid down a disc that captures their compelling live vibe. Sweet-voiced frontwoman Badiaa Bouhrizi winds her deceptively effortless vocals around often challenging arrangements. The opening track, an Afro-beat excursion sprinkled with tempo changes and sung in English, is a case in point.

Highlights are numerous: ‘Mulatu’, a glorious paean to the ‘Daddy from Addy’, sees Bouhrizi’s Arabic lyrics flying over heavy Ethiopian horn work from saxophonist Ben Somers and trumpet-player (and Royal Academy graduate) Joe Auckland, both of whom shine on the similarly fabulous ‘Merhaba’. The ringing African guitar of Frenchman Thibaut Remy stands out alongside soaring flute work by guest Gareth Lockrane on the final track, ‘Ndeke’ – a nearly seven-minute-long instrumental that begs repeated listening.