Biography
During the early-to-mid-1980s wave of British enthusiasm for African music, dozens of groups surfaced, yet Jazira remained the ensemble least tethered to traditional roots. Launched in 1980, the band sustained a perpetually changing roster—normally ten strong and sometimes larger—across its seven-year run, with a stable nucleus of founding vocalists Isaac Tagoe and Martin Nii-Moi, founding guitarists Ben Mandelson and Folo Graff, and a fixed three-piece horn section supplying the only consistent thread. Its stylistic breadth arose partly from the wide array of African and European nationalities within the lineup, ensuring no single national contingent held sway, and partly from the founders’ deliberate aim to forge a pan-African and even global sound that absorbed highlife, soukous, rock, jazz, and whatever else captured their interest. After fruitless overtures to several major labels, Jazira secured a singles deal with the independent Earthworks imprint in 1982 and issued the critically praised but commercially overlooked “Love” toward year’s end.
The group left Earthworks the following year and entered a three-year recording agreement with Beggars Banquet Records. They enlisted London-based Sierra Leonean producer Akie Deen, whose “discolypso” style had enjoyed extensive success across African and Caribbean audiences in the late 1970s. The partnership’s first outcome, “Sakabo,” was mixed by dub specialist Dennis Bovell and fused highlife, soca, soukous, and reggae to striking effect. True to habit, Jazira altered course again on the 1984 album Nomadic Activities, an effort consciously at variance with the uncomplicated, celebratory sound the UK industry and public then anticipated from an “African” act. Its brooding, layered, and cosmopolitan character refused to match those expectations. In a bid for airplay, Beggars Banquet extracted the album’s most straightforward track, “Happy Day,” as a single; when it failed to register, the label let the contract lapse. Over the next three years Jazira slowly disbanded as members pursued solo work or joined other groups. Graff departed first, followed by Mandelson and Nii-Moi, then saxophonists Jane Shorter and Sophie Hellborg, who moved to Paris to join Mory Kanté’s band. Tagoe kept a reduced version of Jazira active on the UK club circuit until the close of 1987, when the group finally dissolved.
The group left Earthworks the following year and entered a three-year recording agreement with Beggars Banquet Records. They enlisted London-based Sierra Leonean producer Akie Deen, whose “discolypso” style had enjoyed extensive success across African and Caribbean audiences in the late 1970s. The partnership’s first outcome, “Sakabo,” was mixed by dub specialist Dennis Bovell and fused highlife, soca, soukous, and reggae to striking effect. True to habit, Jazira altered course again on the 1984 album Nomadic Activities, an effort consciously at variance with the uncomplicated, celebratory sound the UK industry and public then anticipated from an “African” act. Its brooding, layered, and cosmopolitan character refused to match those expectations. In a bid for airplay, Beggars Banquet extracted the album’s most straightforward track, “Happy Day,” as a single; when it failed to register, the label let the contract lapse. Over the next three years Jazira slowly disbanded as members pursued solo work or joined other groups. Graff departed first, followed by Mandelson and Nii-Moi, then saxophonists Jane Shorter and Sophie Hellborg, who moved to Paris to join Mory Kanté’s band. Tagoe kept a reduced version of Jazira active on the UK club circuit until the close of 1987, when the group finally dissolved.
Albums
Singles
