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EFG London Jazz Festival: Toninho Horta. Keyon Harrold

Toninho Horta @Jazz Cafe
Toninho Horta at Jazz Cafe on Tuesday night
Keyon Harrold @ Jazz Cafe
Keyon Harrold @ Jazz Cafe on Wednesday night.

In total contrast to Tuesday night’s performance, trumpeter extraordinaire Keyon Harrold graced the stage of Jazz Cafe on Wednesday night. Keyon, who just turned 44 a couple of days prior to his performance, played music from his excellent album “Foreverland”, which came out at the start of the year. The very personal and spiritual songs from the album were expertly displayed by his tight band. His compositions can really hypnotize you, as proven by the brilliant “Don’t Lie”, where Detroit-based singer Malaya was the real queen. And the way they segued into Anita Baker’s “Sweet Love” was something else. Robert Glasper, who can be heard on the album and who is one of the co-writers of the beautiful “Find Your Piece”, was asked to come on stage to play on this track, the album’s opener. He came up with a very soulful and poignant solo which also had a lot of oomph and thickness to it and clearly enhanced the piece. Keyon, whose playing is totally unique and which reminds me, if at all, of Freddie Hubbard’s approach and embouchure, could also be heard on vocals and I really think he should do that more often. And another artist was asked on stage. Having co-written and sung the title track of the album, British songwriter and singer Laura Mvula did her best to prove that she ranks among the best singers in the UK today. The evening closed with the very enchanting and chant-like “Beautiful Day”, one of my personal highlights of the album.

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