Rafiki Jazz - Nduggu Dust

Rafiki Jazz are a big group of star musicians and singers from Africa, India, the Middle East, South America and Europe, bound together on a mission to share their sweeping divine borderless music. They specialise in multicultural fusion. Based in Sheffield, UK and featuring an eight-piece band who began as a collaboration between local musicians and migrant and refugee artists, and whose current lineup comes from four continents. Their four singers include Sufi soul exponent Sarah Yaseen and Avital Raz, a singer-songwriter born in Jerusalem who has studied music in India, while the backing includes west African kora, Arabic oud and ney flute, Indian and Brazilian percussion and even Caribbean steelpan. Whilst Rafiki Jazz has always exemplified multiculturalism with their 'big band' aesthetics as an orchestra that features steel pans, tablas, berimbau, darbuka, kora, maqam vocals, bass, ouds and flutes, this pandemic-lead album is a true intersection of individualism and collaboration. Altogether an eclectic and exciting album, triumphantly and successfully complete, circumventing the constraints of online remote working. This album may be Rafiki Jazz's finest.