Soothsayers are an eight-piece British band whose music spans continents. Formed around saxophonist Idris Rahman and trumpet player Robin Hopcraft, they deliver a heady mix of township jazz, dub reggae and funk. Their music is infused with an African flavour and propelled by some seriously infectious dance floor-oriented grooves.
In Derby, Rahman and Hopcraft started with blaring unison riffs that quickly broke apart into a thrilling harmony. A barrage of clattering rhythm followed, courtesy of kit drummer Arnaud Delafosse and percussionist Richard Ajileyes. This opening salvo evolved into a Theme from Shaft-style funk tune, with sassy horns drawling over Alan Weekes's wah-wah guitar.
Led by a persistent bass hook, the second song had a more liquid groove, with Ajileye providing jungle noises beneath Hopcraft's muted trumpet. Rahman began to enjoy himself, grinning and swaying, then raised his saxophone and began a soulful dialogue with Hopcraft. Both demonstrated impeccable technique, Hopcraft indulging in speeding flurries of notes, while Rahman surged and honked his way up through the lower registers and off into the stratosphere.
As the evening gathered momentum it became clear that the band had every base covered. A throbbing dub tune was overlaid with gleaming Cuban-style trumpet, and this was followed by a Fela Kuti-ish Afro-beat jam ushered in by a cacophony of raucous free jazz. Latin rhythms dove tailed into thrusting American funk, but the spirit of Africa was pervasive.
Djembe player Adesose Wallace joined Rahman and Hopcraft in some goose bump-inducing call-and-response singing, and the cross-rhythms became intricately layered. With some tunes swelling into trance like mega-jams, it would have been easy for the musicians simply to lock into auto-pilot. Resisting the temptation to cruise, they pushed themselves into unexplored areas of harmonic and rhythmic territory. Soothsayers may be an excellent funk party band, but their improvisatory skills will endear them to lovers of hard driving jazz. With public consumption of world music ever on the increase, their impressively authentic African vibe shouldn't go amiss, either.
· At the Broomhill Art Hotel, Barnstaple (01271 850262), on Friday.
