Tok Tok Tok

Album Reviews:

1999: 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover

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50 Ways to Leave Your Lover

Album: Fan Acquisition, 4.5/10 | Released: 1999 | Specific Genre: Vocal Jazz | Main Genre: Jazz | Undertones: Soul Jazz, Pop Soul, Soul | Label: Einstein

Love is monkey-see and monkey-do

A stylish little combo somewhere between soul and jazz, consisting (almost) exclusively of a vocalist, a double bass and a saxophone, with an occasional human beatbox serving as percussion. Tokunbo Akinro’s vocals are exquisitely smooth and convincing, the resulting minimalist sound being the concept here works surprisingly well. They do covers of jazz, jazz-pop, pop and soul standards, with a heavy focus on the 1970s. Highlights are Paul Simon’s title track and Stevie Wonder’s „I Wish“, still pretty funky even in this stripped-down arrangement. This low-key, acoustic approach makes for a quite consistent quality of the different performances, their smoothified-funk-sound really only goes awry on „Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child“, where spark and soul are tossed aside. But overall, this is pleasant and heartfelt background soul jazz by a talented band. But don’t fool yourself into thinking that all moments of these 59 and a half minutes, feeling like cover-song warm ups here and there, are all equally exciting.