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A secret music festival in a Sussex deer park? It has to be the work of local party organisers Playgroup writes Jeff Hemmings

“We could have done with a whole year to plan the ‘big one,’” says Declan Cassidy, one of the people behind the brilliantly successful and fantastically fun Playgroup events that have taken place over the last few years. “We’re hoping for around 2,000 people. We could grow up to 5,000 and we have a five year lease on the site if we don’t screw up this year.”

It’s always a big ask to organise a festival, particularly its first year, but Declan has organised some of the most talked about events of recent times, culminating in a number of shows that saw them take over the whole of Komedia (three separate performance spaces) and featuring some of the best and most funkiest local talent as well as the pick of the crop from around the globe.
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Mo’Wax legend James Lavelle gears up for a live collaboration between his UNKLE project and the Heritage Orchestra writes Jeff Hemmings

Many of you might know James Lavelle as the man behind the legendary Mo’Wax label, set up in the early ‘90s, which gave the world the likes of DJ Shadow and Japan’s DJ Krush. But even before that he was organising parties in his home town before migrating to London, where he set up club nights such as the Mo’Wax Please night (which he also DJed at) and started making music of his own.
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Mali’s Bassekou Kouyate on West African tradition, clan ceremonies, and why he started playing his ngoni like a guitar by Jeff Hemmings

From his early days in the Malian capital of Bamako, where he played in a trio with Toumani Diabate and Keletigui Diabate, to his time as a member of Ali Farka Toure’s band and the music he makes today, Bassekou Kouyate has transformed the traditional music of the ngoni for the modern world. Read the rest of this article »

With a First Class music degree and a ‘Roxanne’ cover impressing YouTube, Ayanna Witter-Johnson is an artist of note writes Jeff Hemmings

You probably haven’t heard of Ayanna Witter-Johnson, but this unique, captivating and talented young composer, song-writer, vocalist, cellist and pianist has been making fast inroads. Despite being only 25, she has already worked with many leading musicians and producers including Courtney Pine, 4Hero, Dan Zanes, Robert Mitchell, Soul II Soul’s Riz MC, the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra, Gwyneth Herbert and beat poet Michael Horovitz. Read the rest of this article »