Renell Shaw’s Windrush Suite shines online
James Rybacki
Friday, June 26, 2020
Multi-instrumentalist Shaw’s powerful, emotionally-charged suite found a sizeable online audience to mark Windrush Day
Despite first being petitioned for five years previously, it was not until 2018 that Windrush Day was officially celebrated in the UK. And this change in tune came about only after the appalling details of the Windrush Scandal emerged earlier in the year.
It is perhaps surprising that it took so long for the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush on UK shores 70 years previously to be properly commemorated. It was, after all, a watershed moment, one which heralded the birth of the multicultural Britain that we know today. Sampled tales and anecdotes from that first generation of West Indian migrants make up a significant and touching part of Renell Shaw’s new suite of music, featuring the wit, wisdom and woes of his own grandparents.
The music itself pulses with energy, with drummer Samson Jatto’s powerful grooves providing a sense of forward motion throughout. The suite shifts fluidly from one mood to another, allowing the attributes of each contributor to shine. Be it the cool vibraphone licks of Orphy Robinson, searching saxophone motifs of Taurean Antoine-Chagar, or the emotive vocals of Nandi. And the effectiveness of Dunns River Caribbean seasoning shakers as a percussive instrument has to be seen to be believed. 
The performers get a breather at the start of third piece ‘Out of Many’, where the suite is at its most poppy and heartstring-tugging. The soaring cello melodies that lead the track, courtesy of Ayanna Witter-Johnson (pictured above), carry a Celtic-sounding lilt at times. As the piece approaches its midpoint however, these seamlessly give way to an arpeggiated afrobeat style guitar figure, with the titular phrase ‘out of many come one’ repeated in the background.
The suite ends on a sombre note with ‘Purgatory’, as a sampled speech condemns the cyclical nature of racial inequity in Britain, where insubstantial reforms leave many with the feeling that it’s “time to do something that’s much more around revolution.” As an ensemble, Shaw’s suite is a powerful piece of work, whose themes and sentiments are as relevant today as they were when his grandparents first set foot in the UK all those years ago.
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