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Incognito VibeZ

Fifteen tracks from a British collective who have been making jazz-funk for forty years and are treated as national treasures everywhere except the charts.

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Incognito

Incognito is essentially the life's work of Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick, who was born in Mauritius and raised in London. The band formed in 1979 out of the British jazz-funk scene — the world of soul weekenders, all-dayers and specialist DJs that ran parallel to the mainstream for decades — and has continued, with a rotating cast of dozens of musicians, ever since.

They became central to the acid jazz movement of the early 1990s alongside the Brand New Heavies and Jamiroquai, though Incognito predates all of it. Their approach is consistent: a large band with horns, real percussion, multiple vocalists, and an unembarrassed debt to Earth, Wind & Fire and to 1970s Brazilian music.

What to listen for

"Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" in the Frankie Foncett mix is their biggest — the Stevie Wonder song, with Jocelyn Brown on vocals, and a genuine chart hit in 1992.

"Nights Over Egypt" in the Masters At Work main mix is the connoisseur's pick and one of the best things on the list. It is a Jones Girls song, reworked by Louie Vega and Kenny Dope, with Jocelyn Brown and Maysa both singing.

Maysa Leak is the voice most associated with the band — an American singer from Baltimore who became Incognito's defining vocalist and has a substantial solo career.

"Still A Friend Of Mine" and "Jacob's Ladder" are the essential originals, and "Deep Waters" and "A Shade Of Blue" are where the band's jazz chops are most exposed.

"That's The Way Of The World" is the Earth, Wind & Fire cover, which is the band declaring its lineage outright.

"Lowdown" with Mario Biondi and Chaka Khan takes on Boz Scaggs, and "Tin Man" is the America song.

"Silver Shadow" is Atlantic Starr, in an acoustic reading.

Go deeper

Tribes, Vibes and Scribes (1992) and 100° and Rising (1995) are the two albums.

Maysa's solo catalogue is excellent and worth working through.

For the British jazz-funk world Incognito came out of: Light of the World — Bluey's earlier band — Freeez, Level 42 in their early instrumental phase, and the whole rare groove scene documented in books about the British soul weekenders. It is one of the least-told stories in British music.

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