For our 4^th consecutive performance at the London Jazz Festival we saw 110 Bloco members get their first Guardian (4*) mention in the events pages, including a name mention for the “sweet-voiced” Shayanna Dyer Harris.  We’ll let John L Walters give you the details…

“The 110-strong Kinetika had an equally exhilarating take on music history for their afternoon show in the Festival Hall ballroom. Dressed in carnival costumes, the young musicians and dancers tore into a repertoire that included Greensleeves, Billie Jean and Second Star to the Right. The Last One, boosted by an enthusiastic fiddle section, was a call and response song from the Bahamas, led by sweet-voiced Shayanna Harris. Kinetika takes the “harmelodic” intonation and imprecision inevitable in mixed-ability orchestras and makes it a positive feature by linking it to the rumbustious jazz of Sun Ra’s Arkestra or the Brotherhood of Breath. Light years from the Dankworths, maybe, but I bet they could do a fabulously hairy version of Sir John’s African Waltz.” John L Walters