Various Artists: Indaba Is…

Bokani Dyer

The Zulu and Xhosa peoples of South Africa define an indaba as an important conference or consultation. An apt title,...

Reviewed in issue March/2021

Zara McFarlane: Songs of an Unknown Tongue

Zara McFarlane

Musically, lyrically, conceptually, in any number of ways Zara McFarlane's fourth studio album Songs of an Unknown Tongue is a...

Reviewed in issue August/2020

Various Artists: Gilles Peterson Presents: MV4

Niles ‘Asheber’ Hailstones | Fatima | Nubya Garcia | Hak Baker | Pete Cunningham | James Mollison | Mutale Chashi | Ishmael Ensemble | Dylan Jones | Marijus Aleksa

A Gilles Peterson radio session at the BBC's Maida Vale studio went past its broadcast remit in 2018, as a...

Reviewed in issue July/2020

Kassa Overall: I Think I'm Good

If you crossed Thundercat and Robert Wyatt it might sound something like Kassa Overall, an inventive Brooklyn-based rapper/ vocalist/drummer/producer grappling...

Reviewed in issue May/2020

Maisha: There Is A Place

Yahael Camara-Onono | Amané Suganami | Johanna Burnheart | Nubya Garcia | Shirley Tetteh | Maria Zofia Osuchowska | Axel Kaner-Lindstrom | Tim Doyle | Jake Long | Tom Oldfield

Maisha brings together some of the stars of the young London jazz scene under the leadership of drummer and composer...

Reviewed in issue November/2018

Various Artists: We Out Here

Nubya Garcia | Ezra Collective | Theon Cross | Triforce | Moses Boyd | Featuring Maisha | Kokoroko | Shabaka Hutchings | Joe Armon-Jones

A timely overview of the part of the young London jazz scene grown through channels such as Tomorrow’s Warriors and...

Reviewed in issue March/2018

Zara McFarlane: Arise

Zara McFarlane | Moses Boyd | Shabaka Hutchings | Peter Edwards

Heavily inspired by a trip to Jamaica, home of her parents, this album marks another key stage in McFarlane's artistic...

Reviewed in issue October/2017

Various Artists: Brownswood 10 Versions

This anthology celebrating a decade of Gilles Peterson's Brownswood label is a vinyl-only offering that includes covers by label star...

Reviewed in issue June/2017

Daymé Arocena: Cubafonia

Dayme Arocena

The strum of a tres. A crash of cymbals. Swelling horns. Spoken-word incantations. A revving rhythm section, soaring massed-voice choir...

Reviewed in issue April/2017

Shabaka & The Ancestors: Wisdom Of Elders

Mandla Mlangeni | Siyabonga Mthembu | Gontse Makhene | Mthunzi | Nduduzo Makhathini | Shabaka Hutchings | Ariel Zomonsky

Given the substantial amount of time he spends in South Africa it was inevitable that British saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings would...

Reviewed in issue Dec/Jan/2016/2017