Could We Be More

A perfect illustration of the ongoing expansion in confidence of the UK jazz scene into the 2020s. Since their debut EP in 2019, Sheila Maurice-Grey’s eight-piece band KOKOROKO had shown huge facility at fusing vintage Afrobeat with jazz and reggae, but this 2022 album is where all the pieces fall into place. From furious dancefloor energy to blissful slow-rollers, and from wide eyed hope to the toughness of “War Dance” and “Something’s Going On”, it pays tribute to the spirit and technique of classic Fela while simultaneously fitting with the clubs and soundystems of 21st century London.

London 8 piece Kokoroko’s 2020 debut album is a jubilant and cohesive demonstration of their afrobeat-highlife-jazz conglomerate sound. Its fifteen tracks, four of which are sub-one minute sketches rather than finished songs, are, aside from the strident War Dance, all upbeat, bright and optimistic. Stacked horns play meandering melody lines and fanfare riffs, the intricate rhythms overlap, interlock and circle around each other, there are snappy, sharply delivered solos and a general sunny disposition hangs over the whole thing. What’s striking about Could We Be More is how comfortably jazz, afrobeat and highlife sit together here; there’s an easy familiarity to the album, as though this latest distillation of musical strands had always existed. Accomplished, generous, sophisticated and full of joy.