Moments club set captured on Live in Bremen

The return of Anthony Joseph and the Spasm band with their latest album on 1 July is a welcome bit of news about an artist who never sits comfortably within the often rigid genre distinctions of jazz. A charismatic poet and spoken word artist fronting an Afro-beat and free jazz-influenced band on the surface Joseph’s artistry is based on a deep love of Sun Ra and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and as a poet the work of Derek Walcott and Linton Kwesi Johnson are important influences. Joseph, described by Robin Denselow in The Guardian as “an intriguing multicultural all-rounder”, in his direction is not going to be an obvious choice for jazz purists. But his pluralistic approach is completely in keeping with the spirit of the music and those jazz artists who are able to push the music forward. Working closing with the Heliocentrics’ Malcolm Catto, and as a guest in recent years with Jerry Dammers’ groundbreaking Spatial A.K.A. Orchestra, Trinidad-born Joseph has a unique vantage point as an artist able to draw in additional elements to his artistic ideas that make perfect sense often folding in soca and psychedelic rock to the mix and keeping it dance-friendly while retaining a strong improvisational sensibility as a bedrock ingredient. Moving to the UK in the late-1980s, Joseph has an Afro-futurist approach in his poetry and his music is its natural corollary. With three albums featuring the Spasm band so far released, the latest of which is Rubber Orchestras two years ago with its quite brilliant stand out track ‘She is the Sea’ the new album Live in Bremen was recorded in October last year and features these tracks: ‘Heavy’, ‘Griot’, ‘Cutlass’, ‘Bullets in the Rock’, ‘Buddha’, ‘Speak the Name’, ‘Bird Head Son’, ‘The Engine Room’, and ‘Started Off as a Dance’. It is released on the French label Naïve. Check back for a review of the album in these pages soon.
Anthony Joseph, above
Photo: Edwige Hamben