Inspiration Information 4

We Say...

Review by Chris Nickson

They don't make pigeonholes big enough to contain musicians like Jimi Tenor and Tony Allen. Tenor — real name Lassi Lehto, from Finland — splashes wildly across jazz, Afro-funk, techno and soundtrack music, revelling in the unexpected. Allen, once the rhythmic heartbeat behind Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, a man whose four limbs can each play a different rhythm, who these days does pretty much anything he wants — including a stint with Damon Albarn's The Good, The Bad & The Queen.

Put them together for five days, fuelled by whiskey, powered by the members of Tenor's Kabu Kabu band, and the result is music whose blood pounds in Africa, but whose spirit wanders the world. There are deep forays into hip-hop on the appealingly lascivious "Against The Wall" and the overtly political "Path To Wisdom" (both with MC Allonymous), while roots reggae forms the backdrop for the lyrically weird "Selfish Gene" — and it hasn't sounded so good since Sly and Robbie were in their prime.

Tenor gets plenty of opportunity to rage freely on sax and electric flute, but he's equally at home summoning up a big band bop spirit with massed horns (witness the shadowy, dubby "Darker Side Of Life"). Allen's work might not be as immediately obvious, but he's the machine here, an absolute master, effortlessly pouring out the polyrhythms and leading from the back, which is especially true on the African material that's the real meat and potatoes of this disc. "Sinhue," "Mama England," "Got My Egusi" all come pre-soaked in Nigerian sweat, daring the listener to keep still, and "Three Continents" closes the album with some joyful, funky jazz that leaps into its groove and keeps on running. Don't classify, just enjoy.