The BAHAMA SOUL CLUB are a German-based group who ply a blend of soul, jazz, funk, blues, bossa nova, afro and Caribbean music. Leader of the band is Oliver Belz who put his team together in 2005. Their debut long player was 2007’s ‘Bossa Nova Is Not A Crime’ which featured guest vocals from a certain Terry Callier. That release went under the band name of The Juju Orchestra; then in 2008 for complicated reasons, they morphed into The Bahama Soul Club and went on to release two more long players.
The band has just released a new album… ‘Havana 58’, which, they say, is an unashamed homage to the flavours of late 50s Cuba… the world of the jetsetters, of people like Brando and Hemmingway, of Sinatra and JFK, of mojitos and the odd mobster! To ensure authenticity Belz has enlisted Cuba’s leading vocal group Sexto Sentido to add support to his regular singer, Olivido Ruiz. The album’s other guest-in-chief is Brenda Boykin who fronts ‘No Words’ and ‘Dizzy’s Bounce’.
The BAHAMAS SOUL CLUB; ‘Havana 58’ is out now on Buyu Records
