Kokoroko first formed in 2014 when Sheila Maurice-Grey (trumpet/flugelhorn/vocals) and Onome Edgeworth (percussion) met on an arts trip in Kenya, bonding over their shared tastes in music. A desire to connect young people in the African diaspora with genres like Afrobeat and Highlife would also fuel the band’s genesis. Before long they were playing gigs, riding a wave of the then nascent “London jazz scene”. In 2018, their breakthrough was secured when the sparse ‘Abusey Junction’ was included on Gilles Peterson’s ‘We Out Here’ compilation. An understated 7 minute ballad recorded in an afternoon, it quickly became a viral hit racking up 75 million streams.
