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‘When it comes to Britain’s colonial past, music can be part of that reckoning’
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to British Nigerian/Jamaican pianist ROELLA OLORO
Roella Oloro, 2021 [Jack Kendon]

IT was an especially groovy session at the Vortex, with Roella Oloro’s sparkling piano, the plummeting, dancing bass of Rio Kai and the deft, everywhere drums of Andee Liu.

Roella plays in and out of the tradition with such pride and skill, that if you shut your eyes you could be hearing moments of Geri Allen, Mary Lou Williams, Tommy Flanagan or her earliest inspiration, Oscar Peterson. How they would have loved her!

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