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An Honest Jon's Chup Up!: Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Damon Albarn, Tony Allen, Lobi Traore, AFel Bocoum

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Description: The New York brothers and their band mix jazz, pop, funk, soul, R&B and hip hop.


 
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Honest Jon's chop up leaves us wanting more

Jane Cornwell, Evening Standard 07.07.08
 
Tony Allen

Drumming up fans: Tony Allen

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In Nigeria, a chop up is a big feast. This then was some menu: a choice array of artists from West Africa and beyond, linked by the eclectic London record label Honest Jon's.

On a stage bedecked with flags, musicians in boubous and the horn-blowing Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, stars took turns in the spotlight. Drummer Tony Allen displayed the sort of headpatting, tummy-rubbing dexterity that co-created Afrobeat.

Malian guitarist Lobi Traoré peeled off burning blues licks while an axeman in leather pants did the same upside down on the floor. Kokanko Sata Doumbia sang in a voice both charming and explosive and reclaimed the traditionally male kamelen n'goni hunter's harp.

A bowler-hatted Afel Boucoum played roots blues like his mentor, Ali Farke Touré. Wraithlike folk chanteuse Simone White and eccentric country singer Victoria Williams enhanced the sense of occasion. Soul diva Candi Staton raised the roof.

Kora genius Toumani Diabaté sprinkled his magic over everything, aided by balafon and thudding calabash. Grinning behind his fairground organ, label boss Damon Albarn threw in blasts of echo-ey melodica before singing Sunset Coming On, a dreamy track that became a frenzied musical chow-down. "We're Honest Jon's," he announced, hands in the air, leaving us wanting more.

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