Willmoore Road by Kate Luxmoore and Lekan Babalola

" Willmore Road' is as part of the new album On Record, a new 'sonic love letter to Birmingham', is specially produced and commissioned by Birmingham Music Archive for the Birmingham 2022 Festival. Featuring UB40, Dapz on the Map, Friendly Fire Band, SANITY ft Black Voices, and Xhosa Cole with Soweto Kinch amongst others, the 11-track LP is an all-star Birmingham record. Birmingham's famed Balti curries, literary culture, canal networks and urban wildlife, unsung musical pioneers, diverse communities and industrial past are all celebrated and explored in On Record.
'Willmore Road': It is a musical interpretation of one of the roads in north of Birmingham, in the West Midlands region of England.
The road is currently a home to a majority of people from outside the UK, who have now made the road their permanent base for many years and increasing.
On Record reflects Birmingham’s diverse communities and rich, vibrant music culture which is currently experiencing a renaissance thanks to an explosion of creativity across the city’s cultural industries, enforcing Birmingham as a city of music and a music city.
Kate Luxmoore
A clarinettist with “ a velveteen tone and lithe style of playing” (Songlines)
Kate Luxmoore, has been interpreting what she terms the "English Songbook" through a fusion of jazz and urban grooves, marrying together harmonies and melodies of English folk with the rolling, poly-rhythms of yoruba grooves to create an upbeat british sound.
Kates travels and musical exploration have taken her far and wide, through classical, contemporary and traditional music. Her second album, Unquiet Grave, gives voice to her unique take on English folk tunes. Music with a sense of Englishness at its heart - but with a shared world vision.
"this is original work, English jazz sounds, pure British in nature". Oliver Weindling - Vortex Jazz Club
www.kateluxmoore.com
Lekan Babalola
Twice Grammy award winning Yoruba percussionist, Lekan Babalola is a custodian of Yoruba tradition his family taught him first hand Yoruba art and culture and this has influenced all his work. He studied filmmaking at Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design London, continuing his studies at Northern School of Film & Television, Leeds.
Lekan Babalola is the founder and Artistic Director of the Ifa-Yoruba Contemporary Arts Trust, a UK based registered charity trust committed to fostering the development of Yoruba arts and culture. He has undertaken education work as part of his artistic programme and has an on-going relationship both in the UK, USA, Europe, Caribbean and Africa as a percussionist, Cultural Curator and Producer.
Musicians Credits
1. Kate Luxmoore - Clarinet/Keybords/Lead and backing Vocal
2. Alvin Davis-Trumpet
3. Amrit Sohal-French Horn
4. Reuben Reynolds- Guitar
5. Colins Peters-Bass
6. Marcus Copeland-Drums
7. Lekan Babalola-Percussions/Poetry
Written and arranged by Kate Luxmoore and Lekan Babalola
Engineered by Rueben Reynolds, Dottabeats and Mr 7 Keys
Recorded at Ogbe’Sa Studios and Sin Lounge Studio, Birmingham
Mixed By Alvin Davis at Hornblower Studio, Birmingham
Co-Produced by Kate Luxmoore
Produced by Lekan Babalola by Reuben Reynolds for Oyeku Productions
Music Publisher: Alekijojo Music PRS © 2022