Benny's Girls: Benny Goodman's Rare Songbirds CD

' Blending the pulsating rhythms of Afrobeat with the sonic adventurousness of dub reggae and urban jazz, Soothsayers shook up the jaded music scene with their acclaimed debut album, Lost City. They followed this with Tangled Roots, an exceptional release that defies standard classifications: the West African roots music that fired Fela Kuti's rebellion is filtered through the deeply seductive dub experimentation of Lee Perry, King Tubby and Augustus Pablo, while funk, hip hop and other contemporary elements yield a complex sound firmly lodged in London's broader musical experience. Soothsayers is a band brought together by unusual coincidences and, when they hear the music or see a live performance, many say destiny . The main writers and conceptual leaders of Soothsayers, Red Earth Records and the wider Red Earth Collective are Idris Rahman and Robin Hopcraft. The producers met in the late 1990s while working together as a horn section for reggae producer , Mad Professor. They realised they had similar musical passions and an affinity for each other's playing. They decided to work together and call themselves Soothsayers, a name which suggests something of the deep and mystical power they felt for the music they began to study and create. A chance meeting with the Nigerian elder and artist, musician, master drummer and singer, Adesose Wallace, at a benefit gig for the late Nigerian writer Ken Sarowiwa inspired further collaboration and songwriting. The Fela protege grew up in Sierra Leone and Nigeria where his mother ran the old Afro Spot nightclub in downtown Lagos. In his early days he toured extensively across West Africa with Hugh Masakela and was a regular at Fela's shrine compound. Soothsayers then found themselves bonding with Togolese bass player, Kodjovi Kush. The son of a diplomat and speaker of 10 languages, he was schooled in Israel but has settled in London. Kush, as he is known to his friends, is a long time devotee to Rastafari. Idris' sister, the Mercury Music Prize-nominated Jazz keyboardist Zoe Rahman was incorporated into expanding sound as well as master drummer Patrick Illingworth, whose credits include work with the Cinematic Orchestra, singer-songwriter Sia and groundbreaking dance music act 808 State. The line up was completed by guitarists Phil Dawson, who has worked with many international African stars like Tony Allen and Natasha Atlas, ...