With two albums under their belt and more to come, Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro makes us fall in love with their brand of funk. Sometimes loungy and chilled with a healthy dose of jazz, sometimes energetic with streaks of afrobeat and more shaken than stirred. Whichever way you prefer your funk, these guys will have you covered. Too cool for words, the music is instrumental, and with all the energy the six-piece band excudes, you won't even miss the vocals.
Listening to some of the tracks will have you picturing and old 70's flick. The upbeat pieces are perfect soundtracks for the bad guy running through the streets, chased by the likes of Richard Roundtree or Jim Kelly. The chilled-out ones are as written for scenes of a fly guy leisurely strolling by with his purple suit and pimp cane. As I said, for these tracks words are not needed.
And the members of Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro are equally slick as the music they're playing. Well dressed gentlemen in suits, they're all jamming away with impressive energy on their weapons of choice: trumpet, saxophone, guitar, keyboard, bass and drums. However, don't let the band name fool you. These guys come a long way from Africa. Actually, they're all the way from Tokyo, fusing their japanese cool with groovy jazz from across the earth.
The future of funk and jazz looks unusually bright today.
The Best of Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro:
(Ain't Got Nobody) Just A Rambling Man - One word. Groovy. Both the music and the video. Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro show you how it's done.
Sympathy - It might be named sympathy, but this track sure shows no mercy and takes no prisoners. A true and raw funk track that is all over the place, yet skillfully pulled together into one hell of an energizer.
Caught In The Middle - A lil' more jazz, the same amount of slick. I like to call this 'Gentleman Funk'.
