ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

MOSES SERUGO The local jazz fan out there desperate to get their hands on a quintessential smooth jazz album will find The Enfunklopedia of Jazz an ideal pick. Truth is, good jazz is hard to come by even when you are friends with Radio One’s Elijah Kitaka, about the only person that can boast possession of the biggest jazz collection in the land. This album from the David “Pragmo” Nsaiga and Tshaka Mayanja music-making duo is a good buy that will satisfy your hunger for smooth jazz throughout the week as you wait for Kitaka’s paltry offering on the Sunday night Jazz Evenings show. Needless to say, this album also brings out a tangible feel good factor for those that pay attention to nitty-gritty, like an album’s packaging. It is two discs for the price of one – an album CD and Pragmo’s debut concert at Theatre La Bonita last November as a bonus DVD. Both discs are meant to capture the vinyl era and you will feel the LP grooves when you run your finger on the surface. This work represents a growing musical union between two passionate musicians that began with the release of The Pragmo’tive is “II” Chill Out CD in 2007. It is the work that introduced Pragmo to local jazz-loving audiences after Tshaka’s Mayanja’s hawk eyes spotted the church-based keyboardist playing for Isaiah Katumwa at a 2007 concert. It did not take long for Tshaka to talk the unassuming keyboardist into being part of his Black Roots Unlimited musical initiatives that are out to thrust unknowns onto the global music scene. The new album aims to capture the music phenomenon that was funk. For the uninitiated, this form is defined as a type of popular music combining elements of jazz, blues, and soul and characterised by syncopated rhythm and a heavy, repetitive bass line. The latter is a salient feature on The Enfunklopedia of Jazz and you cannot help but feel that Tshaka was desperate to add his footprint onto this celebrated music form that was all the rage in the mid-to-late 60s. The album, which captures a variety of moods is a careful balance of keyboard and bass guitar strings although some songs feel like Pragmo had a gun put to his head to get the feel of funk. That said, the keyboard playing is precise (those that can decipher each sound made by the black and white keys will tell you that) and Tshaka plucks his bass-guitar strings delicately, in a way that will not tire the listener who has not gotten the hang of the intricacies of jazz appreciation. The Enfunklopedia of Jazz is an ideal way to get weaned from the “Cerelac” stage of jazz appreciation (which most Ugandan jazz fans are at) onto “solid food”. The album is a 15-song set that also thrives on very imaginative track titles that will paint the Rio Sunrise, get you zouked-up to Miss Martinique, send you sleeping sweetly on Junju’s Lullaby and have you appreciate your mum more on My Mama’s Love (Is Funky). Those are just a few of the notable picks and if you are wishing for more of the Pragmo/ Tshaka musical union, the reggae-flavoured Brothers For Life points to a relationship between two talented siblings. This particular song points to Tshaka’s reggae obsession and is testament to his desire to create a reggae-jazz hybrid as was seen on album Reggaeology. Personal tributes to musical influences that have passed on can be heard on the up-tempo Grooving with Bernard (Edwards-RIP), which eulogises the talent of Bernard Edwards, one of Tshaka’s favourite bass players. Edwards co-founded the 70s funk/disco outfit Chic together with Nile Rogers. The album would not be complete without Pragmo acknowledging the Lord for his gifted musical fingers and Jesus must be flattered by the gesture. It could also Pragmo’s way of saying that playing on the secular circuit in devil’s lairs like Ange Noir and having frothy-products like Tusker Malt Lager has not shaken his faith one bit. Linga’latin has to be this album’s crowning glory- a seamless fusion of rumba and Latino rhythms but if you get off on eerie stuff, Dr. Funkenstein’s Concerto with its lingering wail may raise the hair at the back of your neck.

Other Stories - 22/07/2008