This month’s listening picks from the Caribbean — featuring reviews by Nigel Campbell of new music by Richard Payne; Girl Zero; Tera Kòrá; and Zaynab Wilson
Richard Payne
Introspection (SojoMusic)
More than 20 years after his Bluemangó debut, St Lucian jazz musician and composer Richard Payne returns with a dizzyingly spectacular album of Creole jazz, featuring hints of broader inspiration than these Antilles. In the opening track, “The Call”, we hear wordless vocalisations, reminiscent of the Pat Metheny Group’s Grammy-winning, mid-to-late 1980s oeuvre. The album positions original compositions and traditional Creole and “classical” folk songs within a contemporary milieu, showcasing both island innovation and Creole sophistication. Recorded in France with some of the world’s finest Creole jazz musicians — many living there — the album showcases Payne’s keyboards, anchoring sublime improvisational conversations between trumpet, saxophone, electric guitar, and Kwéyòl voice with elan and elegance. Introspection is a welcome addition to the Caribbean jazz canon.
Girl Zero
No More Hiding (Surrendered Records)
Trinidadian singer-songwriter Dominique Campbell was reborn as Girl Zero after a spiritual conversion, where her past life, its struggles and hurt, were left behind for a new dispensation — where faith is foremost, music is her salvation, and her songs are signs of a new revelation, messages for a new cohort. Her album breaks out of the tropes of Caribbean praise and worship music dominated by R&B gospel, and veers toward Christian electronic dance music sounds. Positive lyrics based on her life of redemption and spiritual renewal tell a story, and is positioned — hopefully — to inspire. The music is a major high point for this production, as electronic beats and pop melodies work superbly to make the lyrics appealing, ultimately, to a whole new generation of listeners here, there, and everywhere. Standout singles “Closer” and “The Promise” warrant multiple listens, as intricate music arrangements balance with personal expressions of deliverance. Now, she is found.
Tera Kòrá
Ultramar (Ultramar Records)
Tera Kòrá is a DJ and producer from Curaçao, now based in Amsterdam, who fuses Caribbean riddims and modern African grooves with electronic and soul music. He calls it soulswing: “soulful melodies, tropical percussion and striking 808 basslines”. And on this, his debut EP, that music works well to charm islanders and outlanders, young and old, with a mix of Afrobeats, Amapiano, Caribbean music, reggae, soul, and jazz. Grooving is inevitable. Ultramar is Spanish for “overseas”, reflecting his exploration of the connection between Caribbean and African diaspora music, a journey that sees collaborations with an international cast of artists from Suriname, Ghana, Nigeria, and more from the Antillean diaspora. The songs celebrate resilience, control, and modern love. Courtship has a winning lyric here: I wish I was the sun / I’d kiss you every day / You’d be more tanned than all the ladies / Let’s meet in the shadow / Cause I’m jealous of the sun.
Zaynab Wilson
A Way Home (self-released)
Homer chronicled a journey home. VS Naipaul famously crafted a bitter narrative of return to these islands early in his career. Zaynab Wilson, a Trinidadian-Canadian, released a new EP that she describes as “intentionally minimal and raw, reflecting [her] process of playing with and using space as well as the nature of journeying.” In three songs, heritage and home become anchors for lyrics where a diasporic perspective is evident. I’m a traveller wandering … It’s a temporary state, a moving stage are lyrics on the opening track “Migration” that pinpoint how Wilson in the wide world is, or was, in a state of motion. The sojourner moved between Canada and Australia and back to recount episodes of living outside, existing within, and surviving. This EP is but a peek into that journey. Ukulele, steelpan, guitar, and piano accompany soulful singing that exudes a languid, jazzy, folk aesthetic. Her return home via stories and ancestral rhythms is complete.