Sekou

It's an amusing little slice of the pop culture times that veteran bassist Sekou Bunch is better known to the American public as the first eliminated contestant from Survivor: Cook Islands (2006, the thirteenth season of the show) than for his incredible all-star resume featuring everyone from Quincy Jones and Luther Vandross to Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, the Winans, and Stevie Wonder. His experience on the show probably made him impervious to the odds of a new name (this was his first solo effort since the early '90s) breaking through the smooth jazz format when this was released. The success of Wayman Tisdale aside, another obstacle was the fact that he's an ace bassist, not the most radio-friendly instrument in the genre. All that said, The Next Level is a solid, coolly funky, and supermelodic date, on par with and even surpassing the catchy and grooving joy that Tisdale was famous for.

Sekou Bunch is a world renowned musician and bassist. Born and raised in New York City, Sekou Bunch was exposed to the arts, virtually from the very beginning. Thirty plus years in the trenches providing the rock solid backbone for some of the brightest stars in the business; Michael Jackson, Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, George Benson, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, Roger Daltrey and Marc Anthony to name a few has provided Bunch rich opportunity to draw influence from rock, jazz and R&B.

Songhoy Blues are a young and exuberant Malian band who already have a remarkable history behind them. They fled from their homes in the north when radical Islamists overran the region, and on reaching the safety of Bamako, decided to form a band – at which point their fortunes dramatically changed. They came to the attention of Amadou & Mariam’s manager, Marc-Antoine Moreau, who was looking for musicians who could record with the Africa Express team when they came to town; they also collaborated with Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the AE’s Maison Des Jeunes set. Now comes their first full album, co-produced by Moreau and Zinner, and it’s an impressively varied and rousing set, if somewhat predictable. There’s electric desert blues (Nick), slinky, acoustic ballads (Petit Metier), and reworkings of songs from the Songhoy tradition. A band to watch.

Considering that guitarist Doc Powell's Laid Back album was one of 1996's biggest airplay hits in the genre, and was about as smooth as soul- flavored pop-jazz gets, it seems bold to go the tongue and cheek route and call his latest, Don't Let the Smooth Jazz Fool Ya. Is he promising us something a bit edgier, funkier, in your face? He gets off to a good start with a slamming take on the normally staid, "Chariots of Fire," based on Ernie Watts' version and featuring the potent electric guitar/sax synergy of Powell and Dave Koz over a pulsating groove laid by bassist Sekou Bunch, drummer Michael White and percussionist Munyungo Jackson. He hits the mid-tempo funk mark on the bluesy breezes of the synth-horn splashed "Good Intentions" and "Here's To You," which features Powell in synch with Everette Harp's sax and a short but luscious Bobby Lyle piano solo.