Exclusive Premiere: Waaju “Listening Glasses”

Waaju return with new single “Listening Glasses”. It’s afrobeat-like energy and joyful interplay between guitar and tenor sax somewhere between Tony Allen’s grooves, chimurenga guitar and Headhunters’ funk. Just the first taste from their forthcoming second album, “Grown”, expected this June on Olindo Records.

Pulsing Afro-Latin roots and UK jazz combine on “Grown”, the latest album by London-based quintet Waaju, released via Olindo Records. Fusing dexterous hand-percussion, hypnotic guitar riffs and soaring melodies, Waaju connect a wide range of traditional musics percolating at different corners of the global soundscape yet with a distinctly of-the-moment and British jazz flavour.

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Led by drummer and percussionist Ben Brown (Alfa Mist, Dizraeli, Ashley Henry), and comprising members across the UK’s extensive music scene including, percussionist Ernesto Marichales (Jordan Rakei, Sigala), guitarist Tal Janes (Nubiyan Twist, Bahla), Sam Rapley (Fabled, Maria Chiara Argiro) and Joe Downard (China Moses, Judi Jackson), Waaju’s unique and divergent sound connects the dots between the likes of Beth Carvalho, Oscar D’Leon, Alain Peters, Ali Farka Touré’s and Los Muñequitos de Matanzas.

Following the group’s 2018 self-titled debut LP, “Grown” represents Waaju at their most distinctive and refined.