New Cool Collective is one of my favorite bands of the last twenty years. Every single album is top notch starting with Soul Jazz Latin in 1997! Now, Everything is OK! is one of my top albums of 2024! NCC from Amsterdam, is one of today’s leaders in Afrobeat music and the name of that debut album set the stage for the evolution of their sound. In 2005, they collaborated with legend Tony Allen (cofounder of Afrobeat with Fela Kuti) on their album Trippin’ and they’ve never looked back.
Today, if you consider an Afrobeat spectrum from happy to dark, I’d put NCC at the happy end, Polyrhythmics in the middle and The Budos Band at the dark end. Everything is OK is 100% beautiful, happy music, mostly uptempo with some more moderate, but all with gorgeous arrangements and playing throughout.
Buy or Stream Everything is OK
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The album has 11 tracks overall and each one is a winner. There are three paired sets of songs — Everything is OK/Todo Estará Bien, Charlatán/Charlatana, Monsieur George/Mme. Georgette — for an intriguing run. Then there’s the enigmatically coded GFY — is that “Good For You” or “Go F–k Yourself”? — what do you think? Another puzzle is the pronunciation of Mbaxata. I’m not sure, but I choose the phonetic version “Ambassador.” The tone of the entire album is happiness, and it’s absolutely made for dancing. For those who’ve followed NCC for a while, I’m sure this is another fabulous listen and for any newcomers, “Welcome to the Party!”
Track By Track
The Party has a pulsing deep horn lead offset by a small violin/viola/cello string section. And of course, the intro “Welcome to the party!” and the fun begins. David Rockefeller has a lush flugelhorn solo that floats above the strings and rhythm. It’s so inviting, and the fun begins.
The Grateful Eight, presumably refers to the core NCC band members, most of whom have been together for much of their history. The tune has a Caribbean feel, like you’re sailing on skiff, island hopping. There’s a sweet keyboard riff from Willem Friede before another big wave from the horns and nifty percussion. The main melody is alternately echoed by the horns, guitar and keys and it’s a heady mix.
GFY, what could it mean? It has a guitar + percussion beat at the start which is total movin’ and groovin’ music. The theme shifts to a huge horn sound before Benjamin Herman absolutely slays with his sax, starting with slow intermittent percussive blasts and adding to it in masterful steplike fashion. It’s such a blast as he goes to full steam. In the second half, the guitar + percussion resumes with a roll of sound from right channel to left (listen in headphones). Rory Ronde takes the spotlight with his plunky guitar solo. Flat out, funky, dance music.
Monsieur George is luxuriant, midtempo tune best heard under a palm tree at sunset with a Margherita in your hand. That’s right, let the guitar lead with horn and percussion support transport you to wherever you want to be. When the roles reverse to horn lead and guitar support, the waves wash upon the shore. Rory Ronde has a golden touch on the guitar. The horns take the lead and magically wash all your troubles away right up to the piano twinkle at the end.
Charlatán has a spaghetti Western intro from Rory on guitar with some brilliant chime work from Jos de Haas. This one is mysterious and more to the darker side of the spectrum. David Rockefeller has a wonderful trumpet solo in the second half. The conga work from Frank van Dok is another standout here.
Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah! is so much fun. It could be a Georgie Fame and the Flames tune if one didn’t know better. The intro implores the instructions and the hand clapping never stops – it’s great. Herman has one of his classic solos midway and I’m entranced. The buildup at the end of solo is as good as it gets, and the punchy ending is a gas!
Everything is OK is everything we need right now. It starts with some guitar work that almost sounds like a false start before the band hits stride with a processional march and the lyrical title. The horn work is outstanding. The chant “Hey” must be accompanied by the ritual of throwing hands in the air. The kaleidoscope synth with the shooting star effects is like fireworks. Rory Ronde has a spacey funk guitar solo and the main theme comes back to close out the tune. “I Feel Fine, Everything is OK” is my new mantra.
Todo Estará Bien translates to “Everything will be fine” and is more downtempo perhaps the ballad bookend to the title track. The string supplement the track and it is clearly softer and has clock-like, time-ticking percussion . Rockefeller has a warm trombone solo accompanied by the strings that sounds like a classic movie track. The composition also feels a touch like some of Cory Wong’s touching, slower compositions. Herman slips in some slinky sax right to the fade out.
Mbaxata is a latin-flair tune led by David Rockefeller on trumpet. The interplay of the horns, rhythm section and guitar is intricate and well thought out. The horns bridge signals a tempo change and Herman takes the lead on alto for the second half. The cello is brought in for some spice before the sax-led theme rides up to the close.
Charlatana starts brighter than Charlatán, this time with Jonas Pap accompanying on cello and Benjamin Herman echoing on sax. The horns + cello play off of the guitar as a nice combination. This time Rockefeller takes a trumpet solo and percussionist de Haas, uses a small hand chime and blocks to great effect.
Mme. Georgette starts with Leslie López on bass and is the match with Monsieur George. It’s deeper and darker, perhaps later in the evening, but equally sweet. Rory Ronde plays the outro fade, and it’s time to go. It was a tremendous party!
New Cool Collective Are
Benjamin Herman – Saxophones, Flute
David Rockefeller – Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Trombones
Rory Ronde – Electric Guitars
Willem Friede – Keyboard Instruments, Vocals
Leslie López – Electric Bass
Joost Kroon – Drums
Jos de Haas – Percussion
Frank van Dok – Congas
Jonas Pap – Cello on Tracks 1, 8, 9 & 10 –
Jasper Van Rosmalen – Violin/viola on Tracks 1 & 8.
Produced by New Cool Collective
Executive Producer: Dox Records
Recorded by Simon Akkermans at Epic Rainbow Unicorn Studio
Additional recording by Daan Duurland and Kees Braam
Additional recording by Joost Kroon at Studio Kroon
Strings recorded by Jonas Pap at City Hall Music
Mixed by Joost Kroon at Studio Kroon
Mastered by Frederik Dejongh at Jerboa Mastering