London Jazz Award nomination Ola Onabule: '.. is a storyteller .. he tells his tales with a soulful openness which is infectious, and he sings with a beautiful clarity and depth.'

All About Jazz: “Ola, in very fine voice, twists and turns at every step, eluding definition and revelling in all his gifts like a child, celebrating this rare feat in the modern recording era of a seventh album!”

In many ways Ola Onabule is a traditional jazz artist, if we can go on the assumption that such a thing exists. There's a funky sensibility at times but generally the music is, not so much ordinary, but at least recognisable, familiar. This comfortable bubble is burst in places by Onabule’s African influence, and the odd electric guitar solo, but the real outstanding feature is his focus on language and narrative. His words are clearly articulated and saturated in meaning; he is reaching out, trying to make a connection with us. The stories he tells carry a real emotional weight, there’s nothing cynical about his work; he is genuine and fragile, which is unexpected and oddly refreshing. His narratives shift from tightly focused laments about lost love and death, to epics about mass identity and global frustration. Ola Onabule is a storyteller, and his work is not at all dissimilar to folk music in that regard, he tells his tales with a soulful openness which is infectious, and he sings with a beautiful clarity and depth.