THE setting a week ago, at Headlines Hospitality, Labone in Accra where the Rev John Teye Memorial School Jazz Quintet (JT Jazz) featured in a concert, was reminiscent of the United States in the early 1990s when a generation of young jazz instrumentalists caught everyone’s attention and were branded ‘the young lions of jazz’ for their hip, roaring, hard driving sounds.

JT Jazz, comprising Joseph Akiti ,16, (drums), Emmanuel John-Teye ,17, (keyboards), Phillip Klinogo ,19, (bass), Rudolph Kwaku ,15, (trumpet) and Janet. Yeboah, 18, (vocals and trumpet) can easily be described as Ghana’s own ‘young lions of jazz’.

They were on stage by courtesy of the Jazz Society of Ghana whose president, Dr Sam Mensah, was more than delighted that this country had such a crop of young, very talented players.

He said before the show started that with that calibre of instrumentalists, Ghana could feel assured of an exciting future in jazz.

The group’s repertoire is built around re-arranged jazz and gospel material, improvisations as well its own compositions. They rendered tunes like Dave Brubeck’s Take Five and Hugh Masekela’s Grazing in the Grass with their own inflections, often allowing for alternating solo spots for the members.

The group’s own material included pieces like End time Groove, Big J Blues and Aseda.

Klinogo, hugging a six- string fretted electric bass, was extremely fluent and showed traces of some of the instrument’s greatest players like Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke.

He thumbs, picks and slaps the strings in a way that makes it all seem so easy to do. He is a very good player and stands out as the strongest soloist in the group.

John-Teye is cool and confident on keyboards.

He has very swift finger work and appears like a well of general musical knowledge. Akiti works busily around his drum set, though some of his patterns tend to be repetitive.

The John Teye School made its mark long ago with gospel music and it appears no matter what other forms of music come on board, gospel will always be an intrinsic part of their music. -

The JT Jazz first had contact with the Jazz Society when it played on one of the Society’s festivals two years ago.

It has now become a sort of symbiotic relationship where the Society needs to keep working with the quintet in its educational and talent development drive whilst the group also needs the organizational and sponsorship- seeking abilities of the Society to keep active and be in the public eye more regularly.