An Interview With Justin Adams
Soul Science, the debut album from Justin Adams, Juldeh Camara and Salah Dawson Miller was recently nominated for the Culture Crossing category of the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music. Robert Plant’s guitarist Justin Adams fronts the outfit, supported by seasoned percussionist Salah Dawson Miller and sensational Gambian riti player Juldeh Camara. On March 19, the trio brought their Anglo-African blues to Liverpool with an intimate gig at the Bluecoat. After the show, Gavin Kendrick met up with Justin to find out more about his latest project.
You were in Liverpool last Thursday for Africa Express, how was that?
Mad! Absolute chaos! An amazing array of people came, we were on stage with Baaba Maal, Nitin Sawhney, even the rhythm section from Reverend and the Makers.
So is this the first time you’ve toured?
Yes apart from a few gigs we did in October. It’s building slowly as it’s such a small thing but people pretty much always go away thinking, ‘Wow that was something!’
It’s such a unique fusion.
It is an unusual thing but then we’re not trying to mix fish with foul if you know what I mean: everything is from the same gene pool. We’re not putting conflicting rhythms or conflicting scales together and that fusion is what the concept of Soul Science is all about.
The rhythms and the melodies are old, really old. Like thousands of years old! If somebody calls it blues or they call it funk then yes, its outer shell is blues or funk or reggae or whatever it is. But the actual science of how you fit a rhythm with a melody is very ancient, and it comes from different parts of Africa. It’s not just any blues lick I’m playing. I know enough about Juldeh’s traditional music to be able to play a lick I know he relates to, that’s why it works.
I particularly liked your version of Muddy Waters’ Hoochie Coochie Man.
Ah yes, Juldeh is Fulani so he calls it Fulani Coochi Man!
How much of the set is improvised?
Our system is that we know the rhythm and the key of each song, and we have a signal to end each piece. And we know a few key points in the set but the actual form of each song, for example how many bars it is before somebody starts singing, or when someone takes a solo, that’s completely improvised.
And it works so well as a unit – even without drums or bass, you’ve got a really full sound.
My inspiration was the bands you see in the streets in places like Morocco, with just three guys. If one guy with an acoustic guitar can sound pretty big then why can’t three people sound enormous? There’s not a lot of sub bass and as much as I like it, you can live without it. It gives a spacious feel to the music. A fiddle, electric guitar and percussion trio – I don’t think there’s another band in the world quite like it!
You can buy the Soul Science album here.
