thumb|Shakatak performing at Knebworth Park as part of the Capital Radio Jazz Festival, 1982.

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Shakatak is an English jazz-funk band founded in 1980 This record introduced their instrumental-unison vocal sound to a much wider audience, and the track stayed in the UK Singles Chart for seventeen weeks. The follow-up, "Night Birds" (1982), was their first single to reach the top ten and it also peaked in Australia at number 92. The album of the same name gave Shakatak their first gold album, entering at number four and remaining in the charts for twenty-eight weeks. Jill Saward (formerly of Fusion Orchestra, Brandy and Citizen Gang) became their sole lead singer to make Shakatak's fifth album, Down on the Street (1984).

The band gained a huge popularity in Japan, where they released a series of largely instrumental albums such as Da Makani (1988) exclusively for the Japanese market.

Independent projects

Bassist George Anderson released his second solo album, Expressions, on 3 September 2012 through Secret Records. Coming three years after his first 2009 album Positivity, this album again had Anderson writing, arranging and producing all of the tracks. The albums Body and Soul (10 March 2017) and Songs From Tomorrow (5 March 2021) followed, again through Secret Records.

Keyboardist Bill Sharpe teamed up with Gary Numan, billed as Sharpe & Numan, and scored a British Top 20 hit with the single "Change Your Mind"

  • Bill Sharpe – keyboards <small>(1980–present)</small>
  • Roger Odell – drums <small>(1980–present)</small>
  • Keith Winter – guitar, backing vocals <small>(1980–1989, 2023–present)</small>
  • George Anderson – bass <small>(1981–present)</small>

;Touring musicians

  • Jacqui Hicks – backing vocals, sax & flute
  • Debby Bracknell – backing vocals, flute

;Former members

  • Jackie Rawe – vocals <small>(1980–1983)</small>
  • Nigel Wright – keyboards <small>(1980–1982)</small>
  • Steve Underwood – bass guitar <small>(1980–1981)</small>
  • Tracy Ackerman – vocals <small>(1980s–1990s)</small>
  • Lorna Bannon – vocals <small>(1982)</small>
  • Norma Lewis – vocals <small>(1983)</small>
  • Friðrik Karlsson – guitar <small>(1990s–2000s)</small>
  • Alan Wormald – guitar <small>(1995-2023; his death)</small>

In studio

  • Dick Morrissey – saxophone
  • Mornington Lockett – saxophone
  • Derek Nash – saxophone
  • Malcolm Tagg-Randall – saxophone
  • Fridrik Karlsson – guitar
  • Roberto Tola – guitar
  • Kazumi Watanabe – guitar

Discography

References

See also

  • Jazz fusion
  • Level 42
  • Shakatak official website
  • Shakatak biography by Jason Ankeny, discography and album reviews, credits & releases at AllMusic
  • Shakatak discography, album releases & credits at Discogs
  • Shakatak albums to be listened as stream on Spotify