Track 9 from 'At Kriol Junction' 2014	
'Karo' (5.25) 

lyrics: Ghashghai/Karami/Susso/Brown 
music: Susso/Bowring/Ball

Two lovers sail a boat together in the moonlight..they look so happy, even the moon gets jealous!


Karo

Track 1from 'At Kriol Junction' 2014
'Baba Superman' (6.06)

lyrics: Ghashghai/Karami/Ncube/Choudhury/Karani 
music: Susso/Carr/Tibirica/Ball/Bowring

In praise and memory of our fathers
’Life is so hard, and I know you are tired, but in my eyes you are like a mountain. I am believing you..’
‘Now I know the time/and I’m always up on time/’cos I got my own watch/
and you’re my superman yeh’..


Baba Superman

Track 2 from  'At Kriol Junction' 2014

'Declaration Kriol' (7.02) 
lyrics: Yaseen/Chutturghoon 
music: McLean/Salama/Kouyate/Carr/Bowring/Tibirica/Ball

Article 5 of The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights says ‘No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’   

..‘My heart goes out to the ones who suffer through wanting to live in a free world..why is she guilty, my innocent child? I wish I had the power to scoop you up in my hands, and carry you off to a far away land..away from the trouble of man’


Declaration Kriol

Track 4 from 'At Kriol Junction' 2014
'Insaaniyat' (7.47)  
lyrics:Yaseen/Choudhury  
music: Salama/Kouyate/Carr/Bowring/Tamizi/Ball/Tibirica

‘Every race & religion teaches us that first and foremost we are human beings and humanity is our identity..
If humanity is alive in the hearts, then hate and hatred, livelihood, rich and poor: it destroys all these differences and awakens the spirit’


Insaaniyat

Track 5 from 'At Kriol Junction' 2014

'Articles of Freedom' (4.48) 
lyrics: Choudhury/Chutturghoon
music: Kouyate/Ball/Carr/Bowring/Tibirica

Article 1 of The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights says ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’ 


Articles of Freedom

Track 7 from 'At Kriol Junction'  2014
'No Lines No Separation' (7.28)
lyrics: Brown/Ghashghai/Karami/Okecho/Bilonda 
music:Tamizi/Ball/Carr/Bowring/Kouyate/Profa/Weye

A plea for unity in a divided world:
'Today's stories are played out on the streets, where children are writing with their tears and god ignores them with more wars, but.. ‘I am a man with open arms, with rivers that reach nations..who loves peace and freedom'.. and we say 'No Lines No Separation’'


No Lines No Separation

Track 6 from 'At Kriol Junction' KoniCDE010 2014

'Tokotoko Berimbau'(4.56)
lyrics: Tibirica/Brown/Ghashghai/Karami
music: Tibirica/Ball/Bowring/Carr

Capoeiristas Unite! from Tocantinia to Tehran..


Tokotoko Berimbau

Traditional, arr. Yaseen
Jhooli Laal Qalandar calls Rafiki Jazz to classic Sufi Qwaali music.
This rendition acknowledges Kiran Ahluwalia's version of traditional Qwaali song Mustt Musst, with Punjabi lyrics based around the poetry of Bulleh Shah and written in praise of Sufi mystic visionary & peacemaker Hazrat Lal Shabaz Qalandar (Usman Marvandhi). Singers Sarah Yaseen, with Sarah Sayeed & Mina Salama. English spoken word from Sarah Sayeed.

Live video https://vimeo.com/konimusic/rafiki-jazz-dam-mast-qalandar

HAR DAM SAHARA

Jhooli Laal Qalandar

music/words Avital Raz, arr. Avital Raz
A meditation from Avital Raz on a Hebrew poem written by Solomon ibn Gabirol of Malaga in the C11th. The poem is from the long cosmological masterpiece Keter Malchut which he wrote for the Day Of Atonement. It is set to a Rafikian arrangement of a Hindi chandrakauns raag based around Avital's  tanpura drone.. English spoken word is by Sarah Yaseen.

You Are Light

music: traditional arr. Mina Salama
lyrics Greek & Bohairic Coptic Egyptian liturgical, & Yaseen (Urdu)
This song fuses 3 choral praise songs from the Coptic canon with an Urdu meditation.
Vocals Mina Salama, Sarah Yaseen, with Avital Raz
Guest percussionist Amir Ezzat

Tasbih

music A Jobe, lyrics Avital Raz/Sarah Yaseen 
'sometimes you may see someone who has a lot of worldly goods..sometimes you may see someone who has nothing.. Death will not spare anyone here (rich or poor)'
Reworked with the blessing of bandleader, composer and bassist Badou Jobe from his 1983 original featured on the Mantra album by his legendary Gambian roots pioneers Ifang Bondi. 
Singers: Avital Raz (Mandinka & Hebrew), Sarah Yaseen (Urdu), with Kadialy Kouyate & Mina Salama.

Saya

music traditional arr. Yaseen, Raz
Har Chand Sahara calls Rafiki Jazz to classic Sufi ghazal with a rendition deriving from a devotional song popularised by Pakistani playback singer Nayyara Noor with lyrics based on the poetry of the late Shohrat Bokhari. Vocals Sarah Yaseen (Urdu) Avital Raz (Urdu & Hebrew)with violin Vijay Venkat

VIDEO https://vimeo.com/konimusic/har-chand-sahara

Har Chand Sahara

Music & lyrics: Kouyate
a devotional song in praise of the Sufi marabout (spiritual leader)and pacifist resistance leader (against French colonialist empire)Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, founder of the Sufi Mouride Brotherhood in Senegal-Gambia & centred on the city of Touba.
Singer Kadialy Kouyate (Wolof)with Sarah Yaseen & Avital Raz.

Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba (Serigne Touba)

Sunno (Listen!)
music Kouyate, words Sarah Yaseen
An introductory piece, a consideration of the inevitability of death and the life that both precedes and follows this moment.
A prequel to Saya, with Kadialy Kouyate on kora and the Mandinka & Urdu singing of Sarah Yaseen.

Release date:
    20 June 2017

Sunno

05 Chitta Kukar 02.49                                                                                                                                                                    (music Sarah Yaseen/Kadialy Kouyate, words trad)  
                                                                                                                                  Sarah Yaseen explores a new rendition of a much-loved Punjabi wedding song where Kadialy Kouyate’s stately kora invites Kashmiri and Mandinka cultures to come close

Saraba Sufiyana

Chitta Kukar

CHITTA KUKAR

01 Su Jamfata 05:11                                                                                                                                                                  (music Kadialy Kouyate, words Kadialy Kouyate/Avital Raz/Sarah Yaseen)
                                                                                                                          
Kadialy Kouyate (Mandinka), Avital Raz (Hebrew) & Sarah Yaseen (Urdu) all sing of home, and although it's beauty, and its hardship, is far away, it is still very real. Avital revives a powerful image from an old Meir Ariel song ‘all the pains whiten with the opening of the cotton’ as they revisit their homelands together in this ‘no-place’ of shared musicmaking

Su Jamfata

SU JAMFATA

04 Kashmiri Lullaby | The Waulk | Hukus Bukus 09:11                                                                                                            (music Sarah Yaseen/Avital Raz/Kaitlin Ross/Vijay Venkat, words trad)
                                                                                                                                  An episodic track that goes far to bring together the spirits of remote Kashmiri & Gaelic culture and language through an ancient and deep Sufi lullaby and a Scots womens' waulking song. A meditative intro from Vijay Venkat's bansuri flute and Avital Raz' dhrupad vocals unfolds compelling Urdu and Gaelic verses from Sarah Yaseen and special guest Kaitlin Ross.

Kashmiri Lullaby | The Waulk | Hukus Bukus

KASHMIRI LULLABY | THE WAULK | HUKUS BUKUS

07 Cajueiro 05:35                                                                                                                                                                   (music Guery Tibirica/Tony Bowring/Sarah Yaseen, words trad/Angelina Abel)
                                                                                                                                Rooted in a Brazilian Portuguese slave-era chant from exploited cashew nut workers, Cajueiro is adopted by the capoeira community and introduced to Rafiki Jazz by their percussionist and berimbau player Guery Tibirica. It features beautifully crafted lyrics written by Angolan artist Angelina Abel and sung in Portuguese by Sarah Yaseen.

Cajueiro

CAJUEIRO

06 Eshet Chayil 04:01                                                                                                                                                                             (music Avital Raz/Mina Salama, words trad)  
                                                                                                                                       The sound of Mina Salama's graceful Arabic oud is an unusual but sympathetic partner to Avital Raz' rendition of an old Ashkenazi-Hebrew song praising women of valour, that she remembers her grandparents singing before Friday evening family dinners

Eshet Chayil

ESHET CHAYIL

03 Chad Gadya 07:44                                                                                                                                                                      (music Avital Raz, words trad/Alberstein)    
                                                                                                                           
Avital Raz turns to Israeli singer Chava Alberstein's controversial 80's version for her take on this powerful and cumulative Aramaic-Hebrew metaphoric passover song, about a little goat and the downward spiral that brings more than its own eventual demise

Chad Gadya

CHAD GADYA

Tum Na Aaye 04.47 (words Faiz Ahmed Faiz, music Tony Bowring/Sarah Yaseen)
‘Before you came…everything was the same’ (Urdu_Pakistan)

Singer Sarah Yaseen brings grace and feeling to a profound poem from legendary Pakistani Urdu poet and author Faiz Ahmed Faiz, about how we shape and view our worlds through our personal relationships

NDUGGU : Dust

Tum Na Aaye

05 Omkoth Ma'ai 04.49 (trad arr. Mina Mikhail Salama)
‘Stay with me’ (Coptic Arabic_Egypt)

Some moments to go deep, guided by the voice and oud of Egyptian singer-instrumentalist Mina Mikhail Salama, as the band enter music of devotion from the ancient Coptic Arabic living archive. Featuring guest percussionist Amir Ezzat

Omkoth Ma'ai

04 Ngozi Ucheoma 05.02 (music Catherine Ngozi Carr, words Kweku Sackey/Catherine Ngozi Carr)
‘Unlock your heart…life is a blessing’ (Igbo/Pidgin_Nigeria/Ghana)

Guest singer-percussionist K.O.G. (aka Kweku Sackey) meets Rafiki Jazz on a rich Highlife inspired groove brought to the band by steelpan player and guitarist Catherine Ngozi Carr

Ngozi Ucheoma

02 Nduggu Bouy 04.40 (music & words Alieu Jobe, arr. Kadialy Kouyate/Tony Bowring/Catherine Ngozi Carr/Sarah Yaseen)
‘Too much dust…we wrap our heads and sit and wait…who failed to warn us?’ (Fula_Guinea)

The global climate emergency brings acute desertification across the Sahel. Rafiki Jazz ask why, in this previously unreleased song from Badou Jobe of legendary Ifang Bondi fame. With soulful Fula vocals from modern griot Kadialy Kouyate and Sarah Yaseen, and driving percussion from guest Millie Chapanda

Nduggu Bouy

01 Naalaikku Nalla Naal 05.17 (music & words Vijay Venkat)
‘Tomorrow is a good day’ (for harvests and lovers) (Tamil_India)

The warm and vibrant singing and playing of South Indian violinist and bansuri player Vijay Venkat embraces hope and heart as he takes the band deep into Tamil village folklore

Naalaikku Nalla Naal

07 Hukus Bukus 04.25 (trad arr. Sarah Yaseen)
‘Who are you and who am I...tell us who is the creator that permeates through us both?’ (Kashmiri_Kashmir)

Singer Sarah Yaseen revisits her family roots with a new rendition of one of the most popular songs deriving from ageless Kashmiri spiritual poetry, passing down the essence of the culture. It is said that the tones of the words and their rhythm create calm for infants and children.

Hukus Bukus

08 Gesi Baglari 04.34 (trad arr. Sarah Yaseen/Rafiki Jazz)
‘I’m wandering in Gesi vineyards…oh my mother’ (Turkish_Turkey)

Rafiki Jazz take inspiration from tradition on this driving new version of a widely loved song from Kayseri in Turkey, a solitary lament which advises caution in our personal lives

Gesi Baglari

06 Bani 03.28 (trad arr. Kadialy Kouyate)
‘Refusal…once you have gold, your soul will be spoiled…ah, you have always refused!’ (Mandinka_Senegal)

Griot musician Kadialy Kouyate updates epic narrative verses from Mande history to rework a traditional song that carries an enduring universal message

Bani

ROOTS & RITUALS ~ DANCING SPIRITS

‘Rafiki Jazz the best of British! How to do East meets West with subtlety & flair (SONGLINES)
‘Brilliant in musicality and transcendent in sound’ (Rhythm Passport at WOMAD)                                                                                                                                                            
         
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PRESS & MEDIA angielemonpr@gmail.com                                                                                                                                                                                                      
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Watch https://vimeo.com/rafikijazz                                                                
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