F
ormed in 1979 by Jean-Paul ‘Bluey’
Maunick – who, aged nine, had
arrived in the UK from his native
Mauritius with a head full of music
and dreams – multicultural collective
Incognito were pioneers of the 80s London
acid jazz scene. Signed to Gilles Peterson’s
Talkin’ Loud label, they achieved their
biggest commercial success in the 1990s
with hit covers of Ronnie Laws’ Always
There (featuring Jocelyn Brown), and Stevie
Wonder’s Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing,
which helped propel fi ve consecutive albums
into the US jazz chart Top Five. Now 62, the
“elder statesman of acid jazz” is as busy
as ever.You’re marking 40 years of Incognito
with a new album, Tomorrow’s New
Dream. How did it come about?
What’s the vibe?
I don’t like listening to an album from top to
bottom – I prefer a good compilation. So I
make my own compilations – like a greatest
hits album of new tunes that have never been
released. It’s a good album to celebrate the
40th anniversary, in my eyes.Are there any songs you feel a
particular connection with?
Haze Of Summer, which I put at the top of
the album because I like that sensibility of
soul and jazz music working side by side.
Sometimes people are afraid to put the
infl uence of jazz into soul music. I wanted tocelebrate it, and [singer] Joy Rose has got this
amazing range. And For The Love Of You,
because I’ve been waiting to work with Phil
Perry for years. I used to listen to his band,
The Montclairs, back in 1973, ’74. Plus it’s a
duet with Maysa [Leak], who is like the voice
of Incognito.Someone calculated that you’ve
worked with more than 1,
musicians in Incognito...
I would say it’s well over 1,500 now.
One particular month we had something
like 30 to 40 different players coming in: we
were on this mad tour, singers were dropping
off, we were picking up people on the
road who had never even heard the bandbefore... It was nuts. So I gave up counting
at that point.And they’re musicians from all
over the world. In an age where
people are talking about throwing
up barriers, does that feel
increasingly important?
Yeah. I’m a father to four children, so I’m
going to feel that as intensely as anyone
who cares about the future. Music has
always been a place where people unite – a
musician goes on stage, and the crowd starts
to sing. There’s a sense of belonging, a sense
of joy.You fi rst discovered music as a child
on the beach in Mauritius...
It’s a place where people would come after
work. My grandmother would take me there,
I’d see the broken bodies of the people
coming from the sugar cane fi elds. And then
I saw what happened to those broken bodies
once musicians arrived with their guitars,
and their little bottles of alcohol, which they
played with a little stone – ting ting, ting ting.
So it was a jam session, whether you had
an instrument or not. People were dancing,
they were on their feet and lifting up their
skirts and spinning. I thought to myself: this is
magic. And I’ve been living in this magical
world ever since.You went on to work with quite a
few of your early musical heroes.JEAN-PAUL ‘BLUEY’ MAUNICK
THE INCOGNITO BANDLEADER TALKS MUSIC,
MAGIC AND DREAMS WITH PAUL KIRKLEY