Project Mama Earth's vibrant 2017 debut, Mama Earth, finds soulful British vocalist Joss Stone collaborating with an elite cadre of musicians led by virtuoso drummer Jonathan Joseph on a set of original songs steeped in African, funk, and R&B musical traditions. Initially, the concept for the Project Mama Earth band was born out of Joseph's love of the traditional Cameroonian rhythms Mangambe and Bikutsi. A longtime Jeff Beck associate and former musical director for Stone, Joseph had previously written a percussion manual ...
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Project Mama Earth's vibrant 2017 debut, Mama Earth, finds soulful British vocalist Joss Stone collaborating with an elite cadre of musicians led by virtuoso drummer Jonathan Joseph on a set of original songs steeped in African, funk, and R&B musical traditions. Initially, the concept for the Project Mama Earth band was born out of Joseph's love of the traditional Cameroonian rhythms Mangambe and Bikutsi. A longtime Jeff Beck associate and former musical director for Stone, Joseph had previously written a percussion manual detailing the connections between these African rhythms and American funk grooves. He invited Stone to work on songs based around these concepts, eventually bringing on board guitarist Nitin Sawhney, Cameroonian-born bassist/guitarist Étienne M'Bappé, and keyboardist Jonathan Shorten. Convening at Stone's Devon-based home studio in June 2017, the Project Mama Earth band began jamming together, writing and recording these songs over an intense and fruitful ten-day period. Impossibly, the plan worked and Stone and her bandmates produced six original songs that belie their improvisational origin. Cuts like the title track, "Spring," and "Entanglement" are dance-ready, Afro-pop and soul-infused anthems rife with Stone's environmentally conscious, globally aware lyrics and the band's kinetic, jazz- and soul-informed arrangements. Rounding out what would essentially be a six-song EP are five evocative instrumental interludes that further showcase the group's world music-informed connectivity. ~ Matt Collar, Rovi
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