And he’s back… I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen Dwele now but I’m pretty sure I’ve been to at least one of his shows every time he’s touched down in London.

I turned up at the Jazz Café not knowing what to expect – and that’s the beauty of this guys live sets; every time is different.  Tonight was no exception with the unveiling of an almost completely new band.

Kicking of with “Flapjacks”, this performance although seemingly a smattering of unrehearsed ad libs, was well planned but different to any other Dwele show I’ve been to.

I can’t recall hearing a single track from Dwele’s earliest collection “Rize” which to me is always a shame as that means I don’t get to hear “Down Jimmy”; one of my favourite Dwele records.   We also heard less music from “Subject” as Dwele concentrated on music from “Some Kinda” and a vast improvement of Snoop’s recent hit “Sensual Seduction”.

One main reason we heard less of the older stuff was Dwele needed some time to give us some new bits, something I was hoping for before grabbing my tickets.  He performed three tracks including what I think will be the lead single from the (as yet untitled) new album “I’m Cheating”.  Lot’s of teeth kissing and raised eyebrows from the ladies.. I don’t think they listened closely enough…I digress..  The new stuff (including the above tune) sounds very nice indeed and even though there wasn’t much of the usual instrumentation we expect from Dwele the core sound is definitely unchanged and I’m sure the Rhodes will be wheeled out on much of the new set (if that’s your thing).

A really nice touch was seeing Dwele and band create a tune on the spot (genuinely) to highlight the qualities of the new band.  Of note… Vernon Hill his usual mad self on the keys and we were introduced to a new backing vocalist with a voice mature beyond his years… the name…. J.Tait.. more to come from him I promise.  The other backing vocalist Lloyd Henderson should be commended on a rather decent attempt at a Bri-ish accent, and a nice sharp beatbox for Dwele to perform "The Truth" over.

A big finale, “Find A Way”, and two (well planned) encores later which included “Old Lovas” sung as good as you could ever expect it to be sung and we were reflecting on another great performance from Dwele and the band.  I say it every time and I’ll say it again; Dwele has an uncanny way of involving the crowd in his live performances and taking the whole evening to a different place.  I believe he places as much importance on crowd participation as the tracks themselves.

I hope this new album makes the same moves as when “Some Kinda” replaced “Subject”. D’angelo and Maxwell apart (who have made us wait half a lifetime for new material); I haven’t been more excited about a new album from any artist since… well… Dwele.