John Fordham 

Adriano Adewale: Raizes review – world music with elegance and muscle

Percussionist Adriano Adewale's new full-band album is a tranquil, elegant treat, writes John Fordham
  
  

Adriano Adewale
Tranquil and elegant … Adriano Adewale. Photograph: Anna Kunst Photograph: Anna Kunst/PR

London-based Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale has lately been proving he's a priceless asset in groups led by vocalists (Christine Tobin, Emilia Martensson and Sarah Jane Morris are all beneficiaries of his considerable abilities), but this is a superb set by his subtly layered instrumental band, with its reeds-rhythm-and-kora lineup augmented by cellist Jenny Adejayan and violinist Alice Zawadzki. Water sounds, African vocal chanting, softly pattering drums and mournful flute sounds unfold the opening Sunflower Song, while Sinho Zezinho D'Angola is a jubilantly whoopy flute-led dance that feels as if it could whirl all night. Mother Rain is jazzy, with Marcelo Andrade's soprano sax carrying the lazily graceful tune as flute sounds drift amid bird-whistles and chirps. Slow, guitar-like kora chords chime under percussion flurries and cello exclamations, tidal washes turn into songlike ballads, and the shouts and whistles of Awe get a Scottish-jig treatment with the arrival of Zawadzki's stomping violin. It's remarkably tranquil and elegantly executed world music, but it has plenty of muscle, too.

 

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