This Is Funkiwala

London-based record label Funkiwala is a global music treasure trove, a spiritual and (hopefully) commercial home for the best and brightest talent in the capital. Founded by Afro-leaning bandleader, in-demand session player and ex-Bellowhead trombonist Justin Thurger alongside the visionary British-Bangladeshi pianist Kishon Khan, a man who plays the meanest montunos this side of the Malecon, Funkiwala has become a go-to for those wanting quality and tradition, innovation and diversity.

This timely eight-track label sampler features its founders’ long established, much acclaimed regular line-ups: Afro-Cuban-Bangla crew Lokkhi Terra gift ‘Kande Revisited’, a traditional song by the esteemed Baul poet Kande Hason Raja refreshed with music and arrangements by Khan and celestial vocals from Sohini Alam, Aanon Sidiqqua, Aneire Khan and Lamik Kamal Gaurob. Thurgur delivers a taste of his crazy-funky Afro-Latin-jazz project ‘NuOracle’ before leaping to join Afrobeat icon Dele Sosimi on the groove train that is Cubafrobeat, taking us from Lagos to Havana with ‘Eni Agee’. Guitarist Phil Dawson's bossa-funk cover of ‘Que Beleza’ by Brazilian Tim Maia is rendered superb by vocalists Nina ‘Smoke City’ Miranda and Moreno ‘son of Caetano’ Veloso; the talents of instrumentalists such as bassist Jimmy Martinez, conguero Oreste Noda and drummer Tansay Omar and others too numerous to mention pulse and shimmer throughout. Funkiwala: from London, for the world, from the heart.