|
|
 |
| |
| |
Top brass Kinch urges young to tune in
SAXOPHONIST Soweto Kinch returned last month with a follow-up to his highly acclaimed first album Conversations With The Unseen, writes Mairi MacDonald.
It earned him armfuls of accolades including MOBO and Mercury Music Award and at 28, Kinch is established as one of today’s most exciting young jazz musicians.
His new offering, Life In The Day of B19: Tales of the Tower Block, remains rooted in be-bop but makes a deeper foray into Kinch’s passion for storytelling and hip hop.
The witty everyday stories about life in Kinch’s home city of Birmingham can be compared to Mike Skinner’s style or a lighter-hearted Gill Scott Heron, with an eerily familiar voiceover by newsreader Moira Stuart.
This month, Kinch, who cites Duke Ellington and KRS-One as among his musical influences, has been visiting secondary schools with trumpeter Abram Wilson, a fellow member of Tomorrow’s Warriors, an organisation that helps young jazz musicians to get signed and heard.
The visits are part of My Music, an initiative to encourage youngsters to broaden their musical tastes. After leading a master-class with pupils from Pimlico School in Westminster, Kinch had this to say about jazz and young musical tastes: “There is the perception that jazz is for grey haired, middle-class white men, sitting around, but that could not be further from the truth.
“Intricate styles of music such as classical and jazz, which are perceived as higher forms of art, do not have to turn young people off. What they often want to hear is something that is instantly appealing, but adults are too quick to accept the idea that the music is too cerebral for younger people.”
He added: “To get young people interested in different styles schools should be organising band nights and encourage people to play together. Schools should sponsor whole classes to go to hear jazz.
“Once young people pick up on a style, get the atmosphere and see for themselves the way jazz players interact, they’ll get excited about it.”
But who does he wish he could perform with?
“Alive or dead? It would probably be Miles Davis. He’s one of the best, but also musicians who played with Miles were left with an indelible touch.”
|
 |
|
|
|
|
