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28 year old, Half-Filipina, half Bajan songstress Elisa Caleb has impressed critics so much recently that she’s been compared to the mighty Ella Fitzgerald, having deservedly caused ripples in the UK Jazz Scene. Sounding like an old pro it’s difficult to imagine that Elisa’s vocal ability only became evident as she hit young adulthood. West London-born but raised in Barbados, her encounter with music as a child was a world apart from where she is now.
"I came over [to the UK] just before my 13th birthday. In terms of the music I do now I only heard jazz when I came here. Going to church in Barbados did give me a lot of grounding in Gospel music. Caribbean churches, I’d even say predominantly black churches here are very different, a different atmosphere. The whole congregation sings the harmony, claps and dances; it’s like the whole church is part of the band, which is great."
As she came into her formative years, Elisa discovered the joys of jazz listening to the radio; "I got a stereo on my 14th birthday and that’s when I started listening to Jazz FM after school, the evening hours with
Helen Mayhew... a lot of great tracks." Later on in her teens, a chance encounter with a gaggle of gifted young musicians really kick started Elisa’s musical journey. "When I went to college at 16 I met Jo [Caleb, guitarist and Elisa’s future husband],
Michael Olatuja and
Amy Winehouse’s former musical director,
Femi Temowo - who produced my album.
The image of the Bohemian musician is alive and well in London-born, internationally raised singer-songwriter U’mau Otuokon. This is no gimmick, mind you. The easy-going mannerisms, positive energy and Bo-ho raiment are all the artist’s own.
The daughter of a diplomat, U’mau’s slightly transatlantic inflections betray an intercontinental upbringing, one which saw her living in far flung destinations such as Russia, Cameroon, Spain and Canada. Along the way she picked up some Spanish and French as well as smatterings of her parents’ indigenous Ibibio and Efik tongues of South-Eastern Nigeria.
On U’mau’s debut album Sound Journeys of the Lost and Found you can hear influences from West Africa, Central and South America, the Middle-East, as well as more conventional western R&B rhythms. I imagine her nomadic childhood must have had a knock-on effect on her art; an insatiable restlessness maybe, to try new things...
What better way to take the edge off a cold Monday night in winter than in the company of jazz vocalist