Nothing for Granted is a collection of musical stories. Or more like a festival of short films in sound. Playing the lead role, Sandra Nkaké changes tone of voice to act out her characters as others might change costume.

Rock it better Sandra Nkake "Nothing for granted" (EN MEME TEMPS) 2012 Listen

The album is a joint creation with Jî Dru, her innovative flautist accomplice. Both are lovers of groove, stories and the big screen, and they have pooled their intimate musical gems and come up with an album that flirts with jazz, soul, dub and pop.
 
Since starting out on the Parisian funk scene, Sandra Nkaké has moved into wider circles but remained faithful to her musical mates. The singer’s versatile personality takes her confidently striding into multiple musical territories. With Jî Dru, they make up one of the most offbeat duos in the French musical landscape. Since 2008, the Push Up collective has been notching up performances of its superb tribute to black music that recounts a day in the life of Quincy Brown, the fictional, jobless cousin of Quincy Jones and James Brown.

Taking this stage and record project one step further, the twosome has put together Nothing for Granted, an album that springs from their dense and wacky imagination. Nkaké has signed up with the new Harmonia Mundi label, Jazz Village, joining the likes of the illustrious Ahmad Jamal and the Cuban percussionist Roberto Fonseca, with whom she shares a highly personal approach to music. In this second album, the singer creates a three-dimensional world peopled with fictional characters wandering round castles in the air, rebellious, off-the-wall, and jamming it up inside her mind’s eye.

Sandra Nkaké Nothing for Granted (Jazz Village / Harmonia Mundi) 2012
Playing live at Café de la Danse, Paris on 11 April
Sandra Nkaké's official website (in french)
 
See also: Sandra Nkaké (article released on 29 May 2009)

Translation: Anne-Marie Harper