Sage Warrior

This second album from trumpeter and singer Sonny Singh is as energetic and playful a take on his Punjabi heritage as his first outing a couple of years ago. However, beneath the lively and tuneful surface there is a lot going on, especially as this album was conceived as an accompaniment to the book Sage Warrior by the activist Valarie Kaur in which she draws on Sikh history to find solutions to negotiating the contemporary world, and in many ways the music mirrors this mixture of past and present. That said, it also is great fun, from the reggae-inspired ‘Sachau Orai’, through the very Punjabi ‘Sohila’, to the Latin ‘Deh Siva’ with its great trumpet playing, all the tracks are suffused with a melodic lyricism that makes you smile. Besides, I defy anyone to watch the video for ‘Jaano Jot’ on YouTube and not feel moved by the sentiments of the song, but also extremely hungry on seeing the hundreds of wonderful chapatis being made.