Steam Down

Steam Down is not a band in the typical sense. It is a collective of artists associated with a series of jam sessions founded by singer saxophonist Wayne "Ahnansé" Francis and held regularly in south-east London. The full list of artists associated with these sessions is a fairly long one, including Nubya Garcia, Theon Cross, Femi Koleoso, and Sheila Maurice-Grey among many others. Out of these sessions, however, a core group of musicians emerged that began to record and perform as a group, so to speak, which is also led by Ahnansé himself. The group creates Afrobeat flavored vocal songs  anchored in jazz as performed by a series of singers. These songs are usually on the mellow side, and they sway rather than groove and stomp. The collective contains poets and writers in addition to instrumentalists, so it is a very vocals-driven outfit.