On Thursday, 30 March St Chris School is putting on a gig at Club 85 in Hitchin to raise money for the United Nations Trust Fund For Victims Of Human Trafficking. The concert will be hosted by the two School Jazz and World Music Ensembles, and the students will be joined by special guest Dele Sosimi, the UK’s preeminent Afrobeat Ambassador.
Tickets will be £10. Doors are at 7.00 pm. Showtime is 7.30 pm. Under 18’s will need to come with an adult.
Justin Thurgur, who is curating this concert, has been working with Dele Sosimi for over 25 years. Sosimi was the keyboard player and musical director in Egypt 80, the second seminal group of the legendary creator of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti. When Fela’s health began to decline Sosimi left the band with Fela’s son Femi Kuti, to form Positive Force. In 1997 he came to the UK and formed his own group, which Justin Thurgur has been part of since its formation. The group have released three albums under Sosimi’s own name, two for the Nigerian poet Ikwunga, and have joined forces with the group Lokkhi Terra to form the Afrobeat/Cuban project Cubafrobeat with some of the leading Cuban musicians in the UK.
Sosimi’s group is a regular feature on the UK’s club and festival circuit; including performances at Glastonbury, Shambala, Secret Garden Party, Boomtown, Green Man and Womad; as well as performing in clubs and festivals abroad. Remixes of his music have gone in to the millions on streaming platforms, and recent collaborations with Medlar and with Sam Duckworth have received critical acclaim from the likes of BBC6 Music and Jamie Cullum’s BBC Radio 2 show.
Sosimi was recently head hunted to become a visiting tutor at Trinity Laban Music College, where he runs Afrobeat-centred perfomance courses.
