London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Event news: K-music 2017 — Kingston Rudieska, 23 Oct

Kingston Rudieska bring the Caribbean summer to Autumn in London:

Kingston Rudieska

Monday 23 October 2017, 8:30pm
Borderline | Orange Yard | Manette St | Soho | London W1D 4JB
Book tickets

Kingston Rudieska

Seoul may not be first city you think of when you say “Ska!”, but there is a fanatical ska and reggae movement there, and Korea’s ska pioneers Kingston Rudieska are at the front of the scene.

They combine ska and jazz with a Korean twist – their great heroes are The Skatalites, and the band mix foot-stomping bluebeat instrumentals – fronted by four horns – with warm, soulful vocal numbers. They call their creation “FeastSka!” and they are thrilled to be bringing it to London for the very first time.

Korea’s first traditional ska band, Kingston Rudieska, have been paying respect to the Ska’s roots since they began in 2004. The nine- piece band blends bluebeat ska, jazz, reggae, dub, and nyahbinghi chanting into a final product that is uniquely Korean; something the band has dubbed “Feast Ska.”

Their shows mix foot-stomping instrumentals – fronted by a four-piece horn section – with warm, soulful vocal features sung by “Sugar” Seok Yul Lee. Their performances are punctuated with a jammy, improv vibe as many of the members are also trained jazz musicians. The music pays enormous respect to ska pioneers, The Skatalites. It’s not uncommon, during a set, to hear an impromptu Skatalites cover kick off an improvisational jam to the delight of the crowd.

Over the past decade, they’ve come a long way from playing dingy basement clubs to appearing on some of the nation’s biggest stages, fostering a love of Jamaican rhythms to a nation still newly discovering the genre. They’ve appeared at nearly all of Korea’s major music festivals, including Jisan Valley Rock Festival, Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival, Busan Rock Festival, Jarasum Jazz Festival, Seoul Jazz Festival, Rainbow Island Music Festival, and Grand Mint Festival.

Additionally, Kingston Rudieska have appeared on numerous televised music programmes in Korea, like KBS ‘Immortal Classic’, MBC ‘Music Camp with Bae Chulsoo’ (Radio Live), MBC ‘Music Camp with Bae Chulsoo’ 25th Anniversary Live Show ‘Live is Life’, KBS ‘Open Concert’ and EBS ‘SPACE’ etc.

MEMBERS

Chul-Wook Choi – Trombone
Seok-Yul Lee – Lead Vocal, Congo, Percussion
Jeong-Seok Oh – Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Jeong-Kun Kim – Trumpet
NockWon Sung – Tenor Sax
Jae-Ha Seo – Guitar
Hyong-Sik Son – Bass
Dae-Min Kim – Drums
Chae-Sun Yim – Keyboards

Links:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.