Soweto Kinch

Don’t be surprised if you’ve not heard of Soweto Kinch; prior to April 12, I too had only a few songs from a MySpace page and the information I robbed from Mike – “c'mon - he raps and plays sax!” – to advise me of what lay in wait under a railway arch round Old Street.

As it turns out, Kinch has been right under the noses of the music-buying public for a while now, counting a MOBO amongst the prizes in his trophy cabinet, as well as a Mercury nomination for his 2003 debut album Conversations with the Unseen. Even the list of accolades don’t quite do his musical talents justice, both as a show-stealing saxophonist and narrative hip-hop MC, his second album A Life In The Day of B19: Tales of the Tower Block being a collection of stories centring around its three main characters.

Translating well to the live stage, Kinch weaves these well-rendered tales with a laid-back natural hip-hop vocal flow over the heavily-grooved jazz soundtrack provided by his four-piece backing band, regularly swapping between microphone and saxophone mid-song without breaking stride. The ease onstage matches his rapport with the crowd, as between each song our narrator outlines a fresh set of circumstances with a glint in the eye.

When they find a good balance of hip-hop and jazz, the Soweto Kinch Quintet demand your full attention, though tonight these instances aren’t as frequent as some might like. Perhaps it’s an obvious criticism of a show of this nature, but there are just so many jazz solos it can be a bit much for anyone with no love for jazz as a stand-alone genre, with the sax, bass, guitar and drum solos sometimes running consecutively and lasting in excess of four minutes each time.

Even ‘Ridez’ – on record perfectly-balanced, complete with a sax hook easily the equal of any current commercial hip-hop single found on daytime radio as well as a voiceover from Moira Stuart – has an extra couple of minutes crow-barred into the centre, though it does little to interrupt the excellence in this instance. With jazz you'd expect this kind of approach, but there’s just so much of it here that after a while it all feels a little self-indulgent for anyone not familiar with its methods. Kinch’s first saxophone solo tonight is jaw-dropping, the second sounds a lot like the first, and the third sounds largely the same as the other two.

The aficionados lap it up, but some are just left a bit alienated, though it’s still far more pleasant to take in than the bastardized pop-jazz of Jamie Cullum. Too much jazz, not enough rap perhaps, though that’s subject to personal taste. What is abundantly clear is that in Soweto Kinch, Britain has a charismatic performer and an undeniable talent, though the live show might have to change if he’s going to become anything other than a well-kept secret outside of certain circles.