Right On!
Andrew Ibi
For Andrew, music has always been about the dancing. His first influences came from seeing footage of James Brown and that introduced him to a genre of music. His research threw up names like The Nicholas Brothers, The Berry Brothers and the more obscure Tip, Tap, Toe. Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights out dancing became an obsession.
Andrew caught the back end of the Dingwalls and Jazz Aquarium movement and lived through Talkin' Loud at The Fridge. Andrew and his friends took on all challengers and though they once got a bad beating from the Brothers in Jazz, they mostly defended their corner and turf. Sunday nights were the domain of a younger Keb Darge and those same jazz heads were always there — spinning, twisting, kicking and shadow boxing.
As the funk scene grew, Andrew decided he wanted to hear more variety and started throwing his own nights incorporating 20 minute fragmented sections of deep jazz, Afro-soul, funk, dub and whatever else made for an unlikely party tune. Thus The Reference Library was formed.
photo © Andrew Ibi
Andrew later launched a jazz session at The Goodge Bar called Acknowledgement. For a while it was the only real jazz night of its kind in London and was one of the inspirations for Right On! jazz offshoot, Home Cookin'.
Andrew's collecting and DJing grew out of his dancing in the mid 90s. His collection covers jazz, funk, Afro-Latin, African and soul plus stuff that doesn't seem to have a designated category. In the end it's just great music, sometimes experimental, sometimes even spiritual, but mostly it's music you imagine seeing your favourite dancer effortlessly, dextrously and systematically tearing up any dancefloor to. The great news is it's timeless, and there's always another session around the corner.