By Marisse Cato
Hi everyone, I’m back again this week to spotlight the multitalented artist Cassie Kinoshi! Kinoshi is a Mercury Prize-nominated composer, arranger and alto-sax player. She leads the 10-piece band SEED Ensemble. It would be reductive to place her work simply as “contemporary jazz”. Her multidisciplinary practice ranges across genre categorisations and artistic mediums working with dance, film, visual art as well as live performances.
If you are keen to get moving, and really feel a vibe, check out the live recording of “Colonial Mentality” from Kokoroko, a versioning of the track from Fela Kuti. Dub sound-system aesthetics mark the space with a bed of echoes and ad-libs. The slowed tempo gives a heavy dub-inspired feel to the bass with the energised kit line driving Kinoshi’s solo to the head. We feel the political agency and urgency of Fela. We hear the colourful and rich sound of Kinoshi. Her work really places her in a politically engaged artistic practice on the London scene with Shabaka Hutchings and Sons of Kemet.
I urge you to take 15 minutes to let yourself be completely immersed by the sonic journey of “Solaristic Precepts”. Inspired by the life and musical approach of Afrofuturist Sun Ra, this work curates a divinely Neptune-coded sound world. It’s beyond the structures through which we live, it’s fluid energy moving throughout the ensemble and it’s completely captivating.
“Afronaut” from SEED Ensemble is moving from the get-go. Busy asymmetric drum beats carry us at a speed that threatens to leave you behind, exacerbated by the flighty head and opening trumpet line continually defying expectations. Together they grip you on a journey with a momentum I can only describe as addictive. Changes build to solos passed around, overlapping, in dialogue, melded into new musical gears, always with urgency.
Beyond her artistic practice, Kinoshi works to champion and serve as representation for women instrumentalists in jazz. Passionate about moving the London jazz scene away from cocktails and tuxedos toward freer and safer spaces, she collaborates with venues like jazz re:freshed (@jaszzrefreshed on Instagram), curating space to enjoy jazz in any way one
desires – sitting, standing, dancing, dreaming.
Across her work, as an artist and a craftswoman, there is a wealth to explore. What I love about her work is that you can experience it through so many different lenses. Whether you are the sit-down active listener type, on-the-go and need some momentum to power you through or ready to let the sounds move through you, Kinoshi’s oeuvre has so much to offer.
Check out her work on her website http://www.cassiekinoshi.co.uk and stay updated with her future projects on Instagram @cassiekinoshi and @seedensemble. I hope this week’s spotlight stretches your ears toward some new music and check out what I’m listening to on our Weekly Picks Spotify Playlist!
Lots of love – until next time <3
Marisse
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