Picking up on both the resurgence of popularity of African and Latin percussion and growth of Cuba as a holiday destination amongst the switched on club community, James Hardway, aka Dave Harrow, has released a timely and accomplished cross cultural album.
The album takes its title from the Caribbean rice (Christians) and beans (Moors) dish, which you find everywhere in Cuba. Naturally the title also describes the cross cultural aspirations of this record.
Harrow spent the best part of a year making the album, doing the first sessions in London in early 1999, when he laid live bass and drums down as the core rhythm tracks. The results were stored on a lap top and taken to Havana by Harrow, where he began work with Pablo Menendez and an eight piece percussion outfit.
From here the musical journey shifts to Kingston, Jamaica, where Harrow enlisted the support of Trinity (writer of 'Uptown Top Ranking') and a host of other musicians, including Congo Ashanti Roy.
Now, with the cross cultural grooves down on hard drive, Harrow returned to the UK to add Theo Gordon's Urban Horn Section before finally settling down to sift the material and mix the tracks.
The result is an eclectic excursion of urban beach party beats, with tracks such as 'Los Locos Inglis' maximising Latin influences, 'Crystal Ball' emphasising the Jamaican leg of the journey, while the superb 'Moving On' pulls London Jazz into a Calypso, dub, UK nu-jazz workout.
