Kokoroko

It was a celebration: three years ago, Kokoroko performed for the first time at Enjoy Jazz , and the Alte Feuerwache had wisely decided not to provide seating for the concert - nobody would have been able to sit down. What trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey and guitarist Oscar Jerome had in mind when they founded Kokoroko was to develop a completely contemporary form of the Afrobeat once created by Fela Kuti and Tony Allen. In Kokoroko, the West African highlife music is accordingly enriched with Caribbean rhythms, psychedelic funk and soul patterns, and not least with the eclectic jazz grooves that have become the trademark of the multi-ethnic, booming London scene. But of course the musicians are so young that they grew up with the urban sound of hip-hop in their ears in the 90s and 2000s, and sometimes Oscar Jerome's guitar playing is even reminiscent of Khruangbin's strange adaptation of Thai funk motifs. The brass section around Maurice-Grey - all female - generates an immense energy, and when she was once asked how she would characterize the band, she simply said: "black, British and young." "Be strong" is the German translation of Kokoroko. The strength perhaps also comes from being part of a larger movement, an artistic awakening that has not only succeeded in making jazz a hip event again, but also a means of transportation for political and social issues. In her youth, Maurice-Grey went through the highly regarded talent factory of British bassist Gary Crosby, from which Zara McFarlane, Moses Boyd and Shabaka Hutchings, for example, emerged, as well as other members of Kokoroko. No wonder that a sense of community has to develop. After the first exclamation mark on Gilles Peterson's compilation "We Out Here" and a promising EP, Kokoroko's first album "Could We Be More" will now be released in 2022. Her fans are likely to not only grow, but eventually become very many.