Soweto Kinch: White Juju [vinyl LP]

Listen
Details
Reviews

Release date: 14 April 2023
LSO5110LP | 0822231511014
2 x double-sided colour LPs in gatefold sleeve

Soweto Kinch executive producer
Andrew Cornall live recording producer
Neil Hutchinson & Jonathan Stokes for Classic Sound Ltd engineering & editing
Additional production & mixing by Tony Platt
Mixed at "Have Ears, Will Travel"
Mastering by Cicely Balston for Alchemy Mastering at AIR Studios
Manufactured in Germany
Recorded live in concert, 19 November 2021 in the Barbican Hall, as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival.
‘Soweto Kinch’s White Juju is a 75-minute “artistic response to a year of pandemic, racial animus and culture wars”, consisting of 10 pieces. It received a loud, prolonged, vociferous and very enthusiastic reception in a nearly-full Barbican Hall.’
— The Arts Desk

‘It’s an incredibly potent and provocative socio-political commentary on Covid-era Britain set to a thrilling soundtrack where jazz, hip-hop, and classical music collide.’
★★★★★
– Record Collector

‘It’s a humane polemic, and a testament to its creator’s deep grasp of jazz improv, rap poetics and classical-orchestral composition.’
– The Guardian

‘In all, this suite is that rare thing: an album that escapes the dourness of “political” music and seems wholly life-affirming.’
★★★★
– The Daily Telegraph

‘Unmissable.’
★★★★★
– BBC Music Magazine

£31.50

Soweto Kinch
Lee Reynolds
London Symphony Orchestra

This sensational recording from LSO Live features the world premiere of Soweto Kinch’s new work for jazz quartet and symphony orchestra, written in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, Black British history and the lockdown era.

Beginning with the deafening silence of quarantine in 2020, it conjures sounds such as a bird call in Central Park, and the statue of a slaver crashing into Bristol’s River Avon, interwoven with Kinch’s barbed, incisive lyrics. The piece is deliberately danceable and intentionally seeks to subvert expectations of orchestral music.

Kinch’s music melds his distinct approach to jazz and hip hop with classical music: drawing broad inspiration from European folklore, the African Diaspora and divisive national myths to create a uniquely contemporary tone poem.

White Juju was commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra and Serious, supported as part of Serious' Giant Steps scheme funded by Help Musicians and Cockayne Grant for the Arts.

The product contains 2 x heavy-weight coloured vinyls (red and yellow) in gatefold sleeve, and contains a code to access free HD FLAC and MP3 files of the audio.

Composer		Soweto Kinch
Saxophone & Vocals		Soweto Kinch
Piano, Keyboards & Sampler		Rick Simpson
Bass		Nick Jurd
Drums & Sampler		Gregory Hutchinson
Conductor		Lee Reynolds
Performers		London Symphony Orchestra