Maisha are a six-piece group, led by bandleader Jake Long, who bring a fresh slant to the weighty spiritual jazz tradition, whilst filtering their own influences from jazz to hiphop to Afrobeat. The six-member collective includes Amané Suganami on piano/wurlitzer, Twm Dylan on double bass, Tim Doyle & Yahael Camara-Onono on percussion, Shirley Tetteh on guitar and features Nubya Garcia on saxophone. Expect trance-inducing rhythms, musical interchange, and deeply enriching melodies.
Their debut album ‘There Is A Place’, released on Brownswood Recordings in 2018, was called ‘a celebration of young, eclectic Britain’ by The Guardian, and reflects the scene and surrounds that shaped it – from the rehearsal rooms and friend’s houses that nurtured the band, to a peaceful, secluded park that prompted moments of reflection from bandleader Long.
Their debut EP was released through Jazz Re:freshed, and they were part of We Out Here, Brownswood’s early 2018 record documenting London’s genre-bending, jazz-influenced underground. They’ve been featured on Boiler Room, supported the Sun Ra Arkestra, and played at Church of Sound, a live series that’s quickly become a staple of this emergent scene.