Shakatak

Smooth Jazz

Shakatak is an English jazz-funk band, founded in 1980. Shakatak scored a number of chart entries, including two Top Ten hits in the UK Singles Chart, Night Birds (1982) and Down on the Street (1984), plus a further 12 entries in the Guinness book of British Hit Singles. The group are still active and popular throughout the world, particularly in Japan and the Far East, and generally produce a new album every two years on JVC Records. From their first release in August 1980, (the Bill Sharpe composition Steppin' on the Polydor record label), and their first album, Drivin' Hard, the band's singles and albums have entered the charts regularly. It was the release of Easier Said Than Done that gave the band the radio exposure needed for their first top-twenty hit. This record introduced their instrumental-unison vocal sound to a much wider audience, and the track stayed in the UK chart for seventeen weeks. The follow-up, Night Birds, was their first single to reach the top ten, and 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. By now a major international act, the success of the release gave them the number-one jazz album slot in Japan, and attracted interest across Europe and South America. Night Birds was used in the feature film Away We Go directed by Sam Mendes and was used as the demonstration song on many Casio Piano Keyboards such as the Casio CT-460. Two more albums – Invi...