Incognito: JazzFunk Fun

“People that make music feel transparent…”

Twenty-seven years ago Jean-Paul “Bluey” Maunick and friend Paul “Tubb” Williams changed their Light Of The World band into Incognito, a jazz funk group known as eminent players of London’s acid jazz scene. The music paid respect to the festive and funk elements of such masters as Earth, Wind, and Fire, Rufus and Herbie Hancock. Plush horns and rollicking rhythm arrangements could change into subtle grooves within the same song. After Maysa Leak’s sensuous delivery of “Still A Friend Of Mine” and “Deep Waters” the band attracted the reputation of being one of the best sources of the chill out. The Baltimore, Maryland singer’s deep unruffled tone and chemistry within the group draws comparisons to the classy melancholia of Sade. As much as the band articulates the awesomeness of cool pretention is never in the mix. It is the sum of cool, funk and soul that distinguishes them from as Bluey says “the smooth jazz crowd” as much as programmers want to throw them into that box. Dance music lovers constantly remix the Incognito catalog for deep house pleasure, a populist contrast to the wine-sipping crowd that is supposed to listen to their music.

Who’s A Genius?

Most people don’t think of the violin as a funky or even a jazzy instrument. That’s because they never heard Regina Carter play. The MacArthur Foundation DID hear her and have awarded their prestigious prize to this Motor City star.

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Talking With Hill St. Soul

Hilary Mwelwa’s telephone voice is smart Black cockney capable of transcending clipped pronunciations of words like “threw” instead of “throw,” to access the church-ribbed ad-libs of American soul. The UK nestled but Zambian born singer has three albums this year with Soulidified. She and partner Victor Redwood Sawyer have worked as partners under the nom de plume of Hill St. Soul since the late ’90s. Their 2000 debut Soul Organic introduced them as authors of a style fused from urban London and classic soul. The follow-up, 2004’s Copasetik And Cool stayed the course of UK Black rhythms and a diasporic connection to stellar R and B. Spunky original songs rooted in styles of jazz, reggae, soul and hip-hop took space alongside congenial cover songs by the Isleys and Aretha. Soulidified shapes itself as a confident stride of polished melody, street beats and high-spirited vocals. BET and smooth jazz radio gave the first single “Goodbye” a nominal amount of rotation causing a newer group of people to ask Who is Hill St. Soul? Crate-digging soul devotees already know about the duo’s fire and splendor but when will everyone else find out?

What is Soulidified about?

It’s just basically a continuation of where Copastekik left off just in terms of the kind of songwriting but I think it’s a bit more intimate more personal. The songs don’t actually fit what’s going on in my life right now I wrote those songs a couple of years back at that time that was what I was going through but obviously I’ve moved on with that now. A lot of the songs are based on what I was going through at the time how I felt.