3rd World Electric -
Kilimanjaro Secret Brew


(CD 2009; 52:11; Reingold Records RRCD 001)

The tracks:
  1- Waterfront Migration
  2- Ode to Joe
  3- Cape Town Traffic
  4- Downbeat Dakar
  5- The Lava Juggler
  6- Kilimanjaro Secret Brew
  7- Tin Can Robots
  8- Children of the Future

3rd World Electric Website                Reingold Records


A couple of years ago, Roine Stolt recognized that an overdose of Flower Kings material threatened to deter the fans, so he decided to concentrate on some new projects. One of these projects was Agents Of Mercy, still in the familiar territory of prog, but his latest one 3rd World Electric is something different. At least, for Stolt, but not for the music lover because Kilimanjaro Secret Brew takes us back deep into the seventies fusion and jazz-rock scene.

De CD-cover reminds me of the Miles Davis-albums, but the musical style is pure Weather Report. The dominant role of the saxophone and the percussion makes this mixture of jazz, world-music and rock a real tribute to the music Joe Zawinul and his men made in those early days. 3rd World Electric also consists of excellent musicians, just as the groups in those days. Next to guitarist Roine Stolt, we find his band mates bass player Jonas Reingold, drummer Zoltan Csörz, Rhodes-keyboardist Lalle Larson, saxophonist Karl Martin Almqvist - who really does a first-rate job - percussionist Ayi Solomon and even famous drummer Dave Weckl on two tracks.

All tracks on this album last between five and ten minutes, which must have been quite a constraint for Stolt, but it’s a relief for the listeners as these songs manage to keep their attention. There’s nothing original here, but that was certainly not the intention of the group. They wanted to play jazz-rock and they do that quite well. Might this be the return of a long dead scene?

****-  André de Waal (edited by Peter Willemsen)

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