The London jazz scene seems to be a musical cornucopia. The twenty- and thirty-somethings expanding the genre keep looking for new combinations and form new sounds in that way. Maisha, for example; consisting of five musicians gathered around drummer and bandleader Jake Long, band members include saxophonist Nubya Garcia, who made quite an impression at teh festival last year. Mystique, spiritual jazz and Afrobeat are blended in wide-ranged pieces. The group was the supporting act for Sun Ra Arkestra, among others, and conjures up different worlds with songs like Osiris and Azure. Maisha gives spiritual jazz a danceable groove. The songs are the result of innumerable, no doubt sweaty, jam sessions, although the album title There Is A Place also refers to moments of contemplation. Maisha firmly plants trance-inducing elements of spiritual jazz into rich London soil.
