This latest Cosmic Jazz started with some examples of UK jazz now and then. The contemporary bands Kokoroko and Seed Ensemble are separated by a UK jazz legend – Michael Garrick. We followed this with two more legends from Brazil, then ended with a Keith Jarrett live performance that included the late Jack DeJohnette. The next Cosmic Jazz will be, in total, a celebration of DeJohnette’s extraordinary range and diversity.
1. Kokoroko – Three Piece Suit from Tuff Times Never Last
The show starts again with another tune from the second album release of UK band Kokoroko. This came out in the summer of 2025 with a sleeve cover to match the hot summer vibe – and the music fits this scene too. There is so much going on here in a happy conglomeration of sounds. Oneme Edgeworth makes his mark on flute whistle, with much happening from guitar and percussion. Next, Azeke comes in with muted and mysterious vocals, while from time to time we get the high life- sounding brass chorus from Sheila Maurice-Grey on trumpet, Anoushka Nanguy on trombone and Chelsea Carmichael on tenor saxophone. We should not forget Duane Atherley’s bass which thumps its way through the number – ever-prominent but not dominant. Derek loves this record – highly recommended.
2. Michael Garrick – Lime Blossom from Troppo/Late Autumn Sunshine
There is plenty going on in this tune too with outstanding British musicians from a different era – although vocalist Norma Winstone, saxophonist Art Themen, trumpeter Henry Lowther and bass player Dave Green are still active. The latter two are in the band Still Waters and in 2024 Norma Winstone released – with pianist Kit Downes – Outpost of Dreams on ECM Records. Winstone is prominent too on this track as her voice soars to the heavens, above a cacophony of wonderfully ingenious, deep, spiritual sounds being created by the other musicians. Again, we have telling brass contributions – this time from Lowther and Themen. It’s appropriate to play Lime Blossom now as a live version is also included on a new Garrick compilation from My Only Desire Records, Late Autumn Sunshine – to be released on limited 2LP vinyl, CD and DL later this month. Of course we should mention the 1974 album Troppo is still available via the Impressed re-release of 2004. There is little we can add to what has already been said about composer and pianist Michael Garrick (1933-2011). Derek once saw him playing solo organ in Norwich Cathedral, as well as in the Don Rendell/Ian Carr group and as leader of his own band. He was an inventive and experimental player and composer who was at the forefront of British jazz from the 1960s until his death and produced important, serious and essential music. Hopefully, the re-releases have introduced him to new audiences. Lime Blossom is sandwiched on the show between two contemporary pieces and they all sound good together.
3. Seed Ensemble – Mirrors from Driftglass
There are names that re-appear in this show and here we have trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey and tenor saxophonist Chelsea Carmichael of Kokoroko, but this time in another UK band – Seed Ensemble led by alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi, who incidentally played on the first Kokoroko album. Other musicians include Theon Cross on tuba, Shirley Tetteh on guitar and Cosmic Jazz favourite Sarah Tandy on piano and Rhodes (but what has happened to her of late?). The album Driftglass was a Mercury Music Prize nomination in 2019 and was released on the Jazz Re:freshed label. Yo can find it here on Bandcamp. Like Kokoroko, the music has a London inner-city jazz groove with West African and Caribbean influences. There are important political messages too: on the sleeve Cassie Kinoshi writes that the band is my way of celebrating the vibrant and distinctive diversity that has significantly influenced what British culture has become over the centuries. She expresses the hope that the music plants a seed of awareness. That message is probably even more important now than when it was written a few years back.
4. The Ipanemas – Sacunda from Return of The Ipanemas
As promised, we moved to Brazil but with bass, percussion and brass still very much to the fore. Here it’s the engaging trombone of Paulo Williams that’s the main brass focus. The Return of the Ipanemas was released in 2001 and is another from our UK friends Far Out Recordings. It was indeed a return for this Brazilian group formed in the 1960s and merging Afro-Brazilian jazz, samba and bossa. Too far ahead for the time, they recorded just one album but drummer Wilson Des Neves and guitarist Neco – both from Rio de Janeiro – were still prominent on the Brazilian music scene, playing with many of the top Brazilian musicians through the years. Joe Davis of Far Out Recordings responded to a request from Ivan Conti of Azymuth to record The Ipanemas again and in 2022 Wilson and Neco, helped by a new set of musicians, recorded The Return of the Ipanemas and the renewed band went on to record four other albums for Far Out between 2003 and 2010. If you like this, check them out on the Far Out website.
5. Airto – Flora’s Song from Free/The Best of Airto
The feel stays with Brazil, although this tune includes US musicians. It’s the band led by Airto (as he is credited on both the original and later release of this recording) – percussionist extraordinaire Airto Moreira. The track Flora’s Song (Airto’s wife is Flora Purim) is not to be confused with the more dance orientated Samba Da Flora. The former is a heavy jazz/Brazilian piece with jazz at the forefront and Airto’s unique percussive embellishments. The accompanying musicians present an impressive list – Ron Carter on bass, Joe Farrell on soprano sax, Keith Jarrett, (who returns on our final CJ track for this show) on piano and , Hubert Laws on flute taking things down a bit in volume but not in intricacy. There’s also a contribution from prolific session guitarist Jay Berliner. Free was released originally in 1972 on the CTI label with the assistance of two more prominent jazz names – Creed Taylor as producer and Rudy Van Gelder as engineer. Recorded at Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Free was Moreira’s first US success and remains one of his most fully -realised records. Essential.
6. Keith Jarrett – Autumn Leaves from Keith Jarrett at the Blue Note
Following the recent death of US jazz drummer, pianist and composer Jack DeJohnette (09 August 1942-26 October 2025) Derek – who had the privilege of seeing DeJohnette perform at Snape Maltings in Suffolk, UK – wanted to include something that involved Jack DeJohnette in this show – but do look out for an upcoming show that celebrates in its entirety his music. As a tribute here though, Derek concluded this show with an extended track where DeJohnette is a member of a trio led by pianist Keith Jarrett with Gary Peacock on bass. Jack’s contribution is immense, not in an upfront way (although he is featured in a wonderful, complex and driving solo well into the tune) but because his contributions are so subtle, so precise, so perfect and so inspiring that they were an exemplary illustration of the drummer’s equal contribution in the piano trio. Like many of the trio’s recordings, this one came live in 1994 from the Blue Note club in New York and was Keith Jarrett’s first New York engagement in eleven years. This one is a really extended take on the standard Autumn Leaves – starting slow, but by around 14 minutes really beginning to move and groove and swing with a climbdown before the ending after a full 26 minutes (including applause). What a tune, what a trio, what a pianist, what a bass player and what a sadly missed drummer!
More from Cosmic Jazz soon.
Breathe is an early preview single from the forthcoming album Cook by the US sextet Lettuce, due for release on their own label on 3 December 2025. This is more boundary-crossing music – there’s jazz, funk and soul in this mix although Adam Deitch, the band’s drummer/percussionist, describes it as a chill hip-hop flavoured joint and the accompanying publicity calls it as a blissed-out track tinged with a retro hip hop vibe – an accurate description of it’s effect and very much representational of the sort of sounds Derek been listening to lately (and Neil adds that there’s more than a touch of George Benson-style guitar too). Lettuce recently produced a version of the Keni Burke classic 
Derek wanted to add his tribute and remembrance of Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal (22 June 1936-13 September 2025). He was innovative, independent and unpredictable: there is a story of him bringing live pigs into the studio for his first recording for Warner Bros and using household objects alongside the many other instruments he learnt as a self-taught musician – for example, piano, flute, melodica, saxophone, guitars and drums. Miles Davis called him the most important musician on the planet and he featured prominently on the Davis album 
The next tribute is to Eddie Palmieri (15 December 1936-06 August 2025) the influential Latin jazz and salsa pianist, composer and bandleader. Palmieri fused the rhythm of his Puerto Rican heritage with jazz. His parents came to New York in 1926from Puerto Rico, Eddie Palmieri was born in Spanish Harlem and raised in the Bronx. His elder brother Charlie Palmieri was also an outstanding and internationally-known Latin and jazz musician. Eddie Palmieri released more than 40 studio albums – many of them on the New York Latin label Fania Records. The tune Solito was the title track of a 1985 album but is taken here from a UK Charly Records 1993 compilation Salsa Brava. This record does not provide any details of the musicians on the record, nor does further research. It is a record with played with fire ; jazz fire and Latin fire. There is Latin percussion providing the basis throughout but early on comes a blazing trumpet solo followed by a free, improvised and unpredictable piano solo from Palmieri then timbales and percussion in tandem ending with a blast from the brass and vocalist- masterful!
Derek read another DJ acknowledgement to Chris Hill coming – perhaps surprisingly from Gary Crowley, a radio DJ, now on BBC Radio London but many years ago on Capital Radio. Derek notes that we would typically associate him with New Wave and then indie music rather than soul DJ, Crowley described being at a club where Hill played a record he had never heard before – one he found amazing and which he has loved, played and treasured ever since. That record came from Brazil and was Gilberto Gil’s Toda Menina Baiana. It’s a tune we at Cosmic Jazz just love. Derek recalls playing it one night in a bar in Ipswich around 01:00 on a Friday night/Saturday morning where there were some Portuguese speakers. The place went wild and the effect was electrifying. It was identification with the music, the environment and a sense of total joy. For Derek, this remains one of my all-time dance favourites. Matti Klein in his Echoes Magazine interview (see above) said he saw music as being about bringing joy – and if you want a shot of real joy just listen to Toda Menina Baiana.
Just as Derek was ready to record this programme the news came through of the death of D’Angelo aged 51 on 15 October 2015. Derek had been lucky to share musical tastes with his two sons and it was his eldest son who introduced him to D’Angelo through the Voodoo album, produced by Questlove and J. Dilla. In particular, it was the track played here – Spanish Joint – that was so memorable. Derek notes that his son felt he was the Marvin Gaye of his time and, indeed, this comment has been made in several tributes released in the short time since D’Angelo’s death. He is credited with being the founder of neo-soul, although he once claimed he simply made Black music. Neo-soul moved away from the pop influenced R’n’B of the time to a more chilled sound and one that merged elements of soul, R’n’B, jazz, funk and hip-hop. This is all there in this amazing track with its stripped-down, ultra-cool sound that swings like crazy with the bass and percussion – and, to cap it all, has the constant intervention of jazzy brass. What more could we ask for on Cosmic Jazz? More music soon.
Over twenty years ago I was in the small village of 
There are many examples of Japanese jazz or jazz related artists co-operating with great musicians from other countries. This is certainly true of DJ/composer/producer Shinichi Osawa who was responsible for putting together the Mondo Grosso album MG4. Guests from beyond Japan on this album include N’Dea Davenport, Tania Maria, Paula Lima and Ed Motta, but there are other lesser-known artists too. On this tune and three other tracks on the album, we find vocals and background vocals from Tokyo-born Japanese/American singer Monday Michiru, who shares with Shinichi Osawa the credit for its composition. Michiru is the daughter of pianist Toshiko Akioshi and saxophonist Charlie Mariano and has been involved with music across genres – jazz, pop, soul, Brazilian and R&B – Music that is not easily categorized, yet is thoroughly engaging said
For the next three tunes Derek is grateful to my son Jacob, who introduced me to Japanese music and got me listening to and also seeing live Japanese artists he had not previously come across, let alone know that there was a very serious community of jazz musicians in Japan. Indigo Jam Unit were a jazz/jazz dance/jazz fusion group that started as a trio and became a quartet, formed in Osaka in 2005 although in 2016 the band folded. This tune is from their 2009 album Collectivity. Their importance to jazz dancers in the UK is illustrated by the work of Manchester-based jazz dance DJ Colin Curtis who has put together a UK-released compilation of their music 
Jazz piano/bass/drum trio J.A.M. bring us Quiet Blue from their first album Just A Maestro released in 2008. Quiet Blue is a short tune with a lot packed into its 2:32 mins as it swings jauntily along, J.A.M. is actually a side project for members of the more well-known Soil & “Pimp” Sessions, from whom we find Josei on piano and keys (bandleader and composer), Akita Goldman on bass and Midorin on drums. The music is quite a contrast to that of Soil & Pimp “Sessions” whose sound and live performances are heavy, flamboyant, frenetic and unpredictable. J.A.M. are more melodic and acoustic and laid-back. You can still move to it though.
Jafrosax features the saxophone playing of Kazuki Katsuta and this tune features the sultry, late-night jazz club vocals of Yulami Nagano, who also wrote the number. The saxophone wheels away throughout, the rhythm section drives along at a furious pace and over this Yulami Nagano sounds cool, nonchalant and quite mysterious. The album A New Standard of the Future released in 2006 also includes a mix of the track by Japanese electronic duo Studio Apartment. In some ways the sound is like traditional mainstream jazz at a revved up pace but there is the feel of soulful house and certainly the urge to move and dance would be a natural response. Jafrosax brings is the last for the show of a succession of three tunes all produced in the early years of the 21st century. A prolific time for young Japanese jazz musicians.
The show ends, quite unashamedly, on the dancefloor. The numbers above illustrate the way Japanese musicians have listened to and been influenced by music from far away. Latin music has been a key influence – and in this case, specifically salsa. We have included salsa on the show before because many of the musicians also play jazz – and salsa with its percussion and horns bring a big band sound that’s free and spontaneous. Orchestra de la Luz have all these qualities. Salsa Caliente Del Japon (Hot Salsa), written by vocalist Nora, comes from Derek’s French compilation Salsa Caliente – with a cover much worn from constant use on salsa DJ sets. On this compilation the Orquestra de la Luz track sits alongside others from the likes of the Fania All Stars, Johnny Pacheco, Celia Cruz, Jose Alberto, Eddie Palmieri, Willie Colon and Oscar D’Leon. The Japanese band more than hold their own. Orquestra de la Luz was formed in 1984, and by 1990 had their first release in the USA. It was number one in Billboard’s Latin charts for eleven consecutive weeks. In 1993 the United Nations awarded them the Peace Medal. In May 2024 the band released their 11th album Mas Caliente to celebrate 40 years of bringing dancefloor joy to the world.
In the last show Neil played some selections from the groundbreaking Strata-East Records to celebrate the release of 
This tune features on the new download Strata-East compilation and is from Charles Tolliver, trumpeter and co-founder in 1971 of the label which was set up by and run by Black American jazz musicians. It was a strong statement of self-determination, independence and political consciousness and that sense is present on this tune. Released originally on the album The Ringer, Tolliver’s label co-founder Stanley Cowell is on piano, with Steve Novosel on bass and Jimmy Hopps on drums. Tolliver has a spellbinding solo as he reaches higher and higher in a search for the sublime. His tone is full and rich – and unique. This is undeniably jazz with soul, jazz with spiritualty, jazz with meaning and consciousness with Black American musicians acknowledging and paying respects to the mighty River Nile on the African continent. As with Larry Ridley, is Tolliver himself under-rated and less well-known than he should be? On the evidence of this tune alone, the answer to both questions is yes.
Stanley Cowell himself appropriately follows. Charles Tolliver. That consciousness, soul and spirituality is here too – I’m a travellin’ man, trying to understand what’s going on… please don’t take advantage of me sings Stanley Cowell. As well as piano, Cowell plays thumb piano, derived from the Zimbabwean mbira. Steve Novosel and Jimmy Hopps are here too but this record actually pre-dates Strata-East being released in 1969 on Black Lion Records. The tune found itself on a London release from 2006, which is where Derek came across it – a 3-CD set entitled MC (Mastercuts) Jazz Café and described as 3 CDs of Jazz Café Vibes. There are plenty of Cosmic Jazz favourites on the compilation and other Strata-East artists are on there too – Tolliver with On The Nile and The Heath Brothers and Charlie Rouse with tunes Neil selected for the last show.
This one also featured on the last show but was not played to its full effect and so to put that rightit gets a second play. However, it’s easily good enough to deserve another hearing. Orbits is the second LP from New Zealand/Aotearoa group The Circling Sun, and it channels the cosmic energy of 1970s spiritual jazz, filtered through synths, layered percussion, and an eight piece choir of Maori and Pacific Island singers. They’re all part of a very healthy Auckland jazz scene and this new album (out next month) references an even broader palette than their first record, Spirits, which we have also featured on CJ. The Circling Sun are a collective and the personnel on this album includes Cameron Allen on tenor and alto saxes, John Bell on cornet and tenor horn, Guy Harrison on synths and Julien Dyne on drums and percussion.
We have featured Polish bassist and composer Wojtek Masolewski before on Cosmic Jazz and we’re pleased to feature him again with his Quintet on the newly-released Live Spirit 1, recorded live in a Prague concert studio and released on 25 July 2025. Wojtek Masolewski has played hundreds of shows, in thirty different countries, across five continents. This has included a sold-out show at London’s Jazz Cafe and the UK’s We Out Here Festival, Jazzahead and Mexico’s Eurojazz Festival. The music is rooted in Polish jazz tradition but imbued with a contemporary, urban jazz sensibility. Masolewski speaking of the album says: Jazz, to me, is music that reconciles opposites—free spirit and formal discipline, lyrical subtlety and raw emotion, individual charisma and euphoric unity. WMQ’s music is my response to an anxious world. I want our sound to offer people a sense of relief, an escape from everyday chaos, and a way to connect with something bigger – and better – within ourselves. If you want to get hold of an excellent selection of contemporary Polish and East European jazz records and more, we recommend 
Matti Klein is a Berlin-based keyboard player and this is the first single by his trio from a forthcoming album to be released on 25 September 2025. It has the sound of an exploratory journey of musical boundary crossing – there’s soul jazz, dub effects and some contemporary cool vibes. The sound is alluringly haunting, yet with a warmth that accumulates and develops. The more you hear it the more it envelops and clings to you. Born from late-night studio jams and a desire to explore the space between breathing funk and floating groove says the accompanying publicity – and we think that pretty much sums it up.
Derek saw Florence Adooni recently at the Norwich Arts Centre – and it was a good night. This number is the title track of her recently released album and it demonstrates (though live illustrates this even more), why she is of interest to jazz lovers. Ghanaian highlife is the base from which her music derives, although she and her band have been adding new dimensions to this genre of music that’s seen a merging of jazz with West African rhythms. Horn sections have always been an important part of the jazzy/soulful elements of highlife – and Florence Adooni’s band does not disappoint. Pitches E.T. Opuku on trumpet and Emmanuel Arthur on tenor sax have featured solos on the record and seen live there were longer jazzy solos with an instrumental break in the middle of the set, where these and other players were given free rein for improvised solos. A.O.E.I.U. incidentally is chosen as standing for An Ordinary Exercise In Unity, which is how Florence sees the playing, listening to and sharing of music, I think we’d agree on that.
By now we are definitely in the soul with jazz phase of the show, and a record Derek dug out from his cellar shelves. The album Afrodesia from The Afro Soul-Tet was re-released in 2010 on the San Francisco Ubiquity Records Luv ‘N’ Haight label, named after the Sly & The Family Stone tune and referencing the counter-culture strong Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco. For more on Sly’s great tune, just see below. The label imprint is used by Ubiquity Records to re-release rare grooves and Afrodesia was originally recorded between 1968-71 but received little notice at the time. The band started as a six-piece formed in Texas 1968, with seven members on this record including drums (jazz rock), drums (Latin) and percussion – although the sound is not as heavy as that suggests. This tune zips along quite melodically and merrily with guitar (Frank Morris) taking the lead. The band’s sound is rooted in a merger of soul, jazz and Afro-Latin rhythms with a social/political consciousness as evidenced by tune titles like Afro Revolt and Slave Traders. Derek will return to this little-known record with its strongly jazz-based tunes in a future show.
Much 21st century contemporary soul music includes elements of jazz but, often frustratingly, leaves you wanting more. This 2003 released tune from vocalist/pianist/composer Alison Crockett – incidentally voted No. 3 on Gilles Peterson’s ‘All Winners’ Top 100 of 2003 – has jazz in her voice and in the saxophone playing of Robert Landham, yet, I wish the jazz in the voice was stretched more and the sax given an extended solo stretch of freedom. Nevertheless, I love the tune – the musical arrangements, apropos of the above comments, and the sensual vocals with messages addressed to a former partner. Alison Crockett developed her skills at universities in Philadelphia and New York but got her breakthrough providing vocals for DJ King Britt and British jazz/rap group US3. More recently, she has taught vocal technique in New York City. Saxophonist Landham (also Crockett’s former husband) has some serious jazz credentials having played with include Nat Adderley, Wallace Roney, Christian McBride, Joey DeFrancesco and Stanley Clarke. More than that, he studied harmony with John Coltrane’s mentor Dennis Sandoli. And the record also includes the late and great Casey Benjamin on keys (rather than his more familiar tenor sax). If you like this, then you might want to explore the 2024 20th anniversary album reissue of this, her debut album – you can track it down 
We end with the original Luv ‘N’ Haight from Sly and the Family Stone. This is definitely in soul/funk territory but we respect Sly Stone (birth name Sylvester Stewart) and as he died in June of this year we wanted to remember his music. The tune is the opening track from the album There’s A Riot Goin On. Is it jazz? No, but words from the CD release to describe the album are enough to justify its inclusion here: a masterpiece of dark, simmering grooves and visions from the other side. It was recorded at a time of well-documented chaos for Sly and the band, with Luv ‘N’ Haight probably an appropriate title, and that chaos is echoed in this tune and others on the album. It’s very much a statement of disillusionment with the sixties counter culture and a observation on the wider darkness of the USA. The pumping bass drives the funk and the tune has the feel of a spontaneous jamming party, although most of it was recorded by Sly himself without the band members. The CD liner notes remind us that Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Billy Preston and Bobby Womack were fans of Sly’s music – as evidenced by that glorious Herbie tune Sly – check that out 
We start with an artist born in South Africa – the legendary pianist Abdullah Ibrahim. Like many musicians from South Africa under apartheid, he left the country – firstly for Switzerland in 1962 before settling in the USA in 1965. Many other artists have also had to leave the continent to get their music recorded and to be heard beyond their country – and it’s clearly evident from the artists included in this show. African Marketplace (1980) was recorded in New York, with US musicians including Carlos Ward on saxes and Cecil McBee on bass and. Whoza Mtwana (Come Children) has a spiritual, almost hymn-like quality and features the horns of Craig Harris on trombone and Carlos Ward on sax. with Abdullah Ibrahim guiding the tune on keyboards. It begins with a slow tempo, builds up to an enormous, crashing, horn crescendo and then returns to a calming finale. A moving, emotional, uplifting tune.
Pianist/saxophonist/guitarist/composer Bheki Mseleku was another South African exile from apartheid, born in Natal but who ended up getting wide recognition after he reached London. His debut album Celebration was released on the British World Circuit label in 1992 and was received with widespread acclaim and approval. There was a star-studded international line-up of musicians on the record – Michael Bowie on bass, Marvin ‘Smitty’ Smith on drums, Eddie Parker on flutes, Courtney Pine, Jean Toussaint, Steve Williamson on saxes and Thebe Lipere on percussion. Mseleku’s father was a deeply religious man and Bheki himself spent two years in a Buddhist temple. It’s not surprising, then, that this music has a deeply meditative, religious feel, enhanced by his chant-like invocations which overlay the instrumentation across this track.
We move a long way up the Eastern side of the continent to hear the unique sound of Ethiopian musician Mulatu Astatke who is probably well known to many Cosmic Jazz followers. Keyboardist, composer and bandleader Astatke is an original. Born in south-west Ethiopia in 1943, he studied in London, New York (where he was drawn into Latin music) and Boston and is rightly regarded as the father of Ethio-Jazz. There are several albums of his available in the UK along with a recommended collaboration with British group The Heliocentrics. In 1997, the Paris-based record label Buda Musique started the series of releases called Éthiopiques which released contemporary and some older music from Ethiopia. Mulatu Astatke had to be one of those included, and the tune Yekatit can be found on the double CD compilation The Very Best of Éthiopiques. Yekerma Sew became famous as perhaps the standout tune on the soundtrack to Jim Jarmuch’s film Broken Flowers and it drives along with an insistent groove and blasting horns with a feeling that is at the same time infectious and haunting. The sound is unique – there’s jazz, funk, soul and that traditional Ethiopian vibes all in one.
The music crosses the continent to Nigeria in West Africa. It would have been an obvious choice to have selected Fela Kuti or one of his associated Afrobeat musicians but instead we find ourselves at Blue Note Records and one of their African percussion recordings. Solomon Ilori , born 1934 in Nigeria, is a drummer and percussionist who moved to New York in 1958. He appeared on Art Blakey’s 1962 recording The African Beat which brought him to the attention of Blue Note Records and the release of his African High Life album released in 1963. When the album was released on CD producer Michael Cuscuna found three tracks recorded a year later, of which Gdogbo Omo Ibile is one, on which he worked with some top jazz names including Donald Byrd, Hubert Laws, Bob Cranshaw and Elvin Jones. The tune opens with Solomon Ilori on talking drum, then percussion joins, followed by piano, then horns with a cool sax break from Hubert Laws before some trumpet fire from Donald Byrd. It is a rhythmic burner that builds and builds with an underlying feel of the spiritual.
This takes us to more spiritual jazz from one of the excellent Jazzman Records Spiritual Jazz compilations, which total 18 so far. This is from Spiritual Jazz 5: Esoteric, Modal and Deep Jazz from Around the World 1961-90 – from which we also took a track in our previous show. Percussionist Ahmadu Jarr was born in Sierra Leone but settled in Sweden where he went originally to study engineering, before music took over. He has played with a number of Swedish jazz and fusion groups and led groups of his own. The tune Kathung Gbeng comes from what is now an obscure 1980 release. This tune is in three parts with the meditative opening and ending with a more up-tempo section in-between featuring the flute of Uli Andersson. It is one of the many hidden treasures to be found in the highly recommended Spiritual Jazz record releases. They include music from many artists little-known outside their place of residence and it’s probably unlikely that you will have heard of Ahmadu Jarr – but you may have come across his daughter Neneh Cherry, who took on her step-father’s last name – none other than pocket trumper player Don Cherry.
Echoes
Time to visit again the music of pianist Shuteen Erdenebaatar and her quartet. Shuteen was born in Mongolia and is probably the only Mongolian musician we have featured on Cosmic Jazz. She left the capital city of Ulaanbaatar to settle in Munich, Germany – a journey she describes as challenging and eye-opening. But she’s made quite an impression in the local Munich jazz scene in Munich she has made quite an impression on the local jazz scene and is now something of a rising star in continental Europe. She’s assembled a group of – in her words – wonderful musicians: Nils Klubelmann on upright bass, Valentin Renner on drums and Anton Mangold on tenor and soprano sax. Mangold plays soprano on the tune In A Time Warp, with an impressive solo alongside another one from Erdenebaatar herself. In her brief notes for the CD, she explains that on her journey she is grateful to have found my own way to express my thoughts, impressions and emotions about the highs and lows of life through music. She has not, as yet, performed in the UK but that day should come soon.
The previous tune evoked a sense of calm isolation – and the same could be said for the album The Space In Between by Matthew Kilner, a young tenor saxophonist from Scotland. The photos on the sleeve cover of the album emphasise the feeling of coastal isolation and beauty. All of this can be found in the music on the album which is inspired by the landscape of North East Scotland, Kilner’s home ground. We selected the title track this time which features Kilner’s warm and crystal clear sax playing and great interplay between bass player Ewan Hastie and pianist Paul Harrison. The album is released by Scottish label 
And here’s our second example on the show of a musician who left her homeland and settled in Western Europe. Sun-Mi Hong did not rate her prospects as a drummer in South Korea and so left for a new life in Amsterdam, where she’s made a significant impact, becoming a major figure on the European jazz scene. Her latest album with her quintet, Fourth Page: Meaning Of A Nest is her second for British label 
We’ve already explored different jazz attitudes from across the globe and for this final segment the show moves towards more danceable beats. Alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett is another longtime Cosmic Jazz favourite and he also fits nicely into the show’s transition to this stage. Dance has always been a major part of jazz and certainly Garrett has seen it that way both in his own music and that of those he has chosen to play with. This is the title tune of an album in which he uses different dance themes (e.g. Philly, bossa, walypso, Waltz, Persian Steps) for the basis of his jazz compositions. The tune we’ve chosen is tight, tough and definitely one to get up and dance to. It features his quartet of Vernell Brown Jr. on piano, Corcoran Holt on bass and Rudy Bird on drums – and with a cameo rap at the end from Donald “Mista Enz” Brown Jr.
For this show, we chose Donald Byrd as someone who has explored a range of different jazz attitudes – à la the late and great Roy Ayers (check out our previous show for more). We’ve featured that return to his jazz roots earlier, but here he is on the 1972 Blue Note album Black Byrd. Gertrude Gibson’s sleeve notes tell us that with Black Byrd, Donald Byrd puts new vitality with a blending of vocal voices augmented with avant-garde elements used in his own individual manner. Our chosen title track is a real groove – starting with strong, insistent beats from the electric guitar of Chuck Rainey assisted by the percussion of Stephanie Spruili before the electric guitar of David T. Walker drives the music forward. Yes, this is definitely electric, yes, it’s a tune for dancers and, yes, this is deep African-American music. It’s music of Black pride and any lover of jazz needs to hear it. Byrd went on to embrace the nascent collaboration between hiphop and jazz, recording with Gang Starr rapper Guru on the influential Jazzamataz album from 1993. Tracks like 
The word ‘essential’ is one that is probably overused to describe music, but for us at Cosmic Jazz and most likely our listeners too, it is a word we would use to describe the music of Roy Ayers, who died on 4 March 2025. This programme includes several tunes to remember and celebrate the music of Roy Ayers – vibraphonist, vocalist and jazz, funk and soul composer. The show opens with a number released on 1975 as a 7″ single with A Tear To A Smile on the other side. It is a laid-back, almost casual tune which illustrates the class of musician Roy Ayers worked with (more on this later). Dee Dee Bridgewater provides sultry, husky vocals and Bernard Purdie is on drums. As always, there is plenty of space throughout to hear Roy Ayers on the vibraphone.
The opening of this tune with its almost avant-garde sounds may not be the sort of music most associated with Roy Ayers. A Rose For Cindy is a Roy Ayers composition from the album Stoned Soul Picnic, described in the liner notes as Cool Jazz Vibes For A Hot Summer’s Day. The album was the second of three he recorded for Atlantic Records under the direction of Herbie Mann, whose band Ayers played for in the late 1960s. To further illustrate the point above about the status of the musicians he attracted, Ayers is accompanied here by Gary Bartz on alto sax, Charles Tolliver on trumpet and flugelhorn, Hubert Laws on flute, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Grady Tate on drums. There are solos from Ayers, Laws, Tolliver and Hancock. Again the liner notes, written by Charles Waring from Blues & Soul got it right: Its an eerie but spellbindingly beautiful piece of music.
I am a convert. I have to admit that I have not always been sure about the music of saxophonist Nubya Garcia. That was changed for me by a February 2025 night in Amsterdam where we were among a large crowd that saw her perform at 
More from Edition Records, this time from an emerging piano talent – Sultan Stevenson and his trio of Jacob Gryn on bass and Joel Waters on drums from the album El Roi, (Hebrew for the Biblical God of Sight). Saxophonist Soweto Kinch and trumpet/flugelhorn player Josh Short appear as guests. The record is focused around the themes of identity and faith – and is an exercise both intellectual and accessible. On any level, the tune Purpose is simply beautiful, melodic and enriching. The music has a modern sounds but Stevenson acknowledges that his compositions are deeply influenced by jazz legends such as McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Kirkland and Geri Allen. Stevenson provides a thoughtful and innovative voice for modern jazz.
As co-presenters and co-compilers of Cosmic Jazz Neil and I (Derek) usually agree on most of our choices. Derek’s selection of alto saxophonist Caroline Davis on a past show did not exactly fire Neil with enthusiasm, mainly because of the contribution from a rapper but Derek is keen to include another side of her album Portals Returning Vol. 2. This is a vocal track, a more easily accessible tune than some on the album. with Julia Esterlin providing the voice and lyrics by Caroline Davis, including the line Life is better when it doesn’t work. (Discuss?). Caroline Davis was born in Singapore but is based in New York. This album is in honour of her British grandmother Joan Anson-Weber, a poet. Caroline Davis combines her at times challenging and thought-provoking music with membership of an R’n’B band (Maitri) along with activism for social justice through, for example, Sisters in Jazz.
We return to Roy Ayers via an album to which the word essential is entirely appropriate for us at Cosmic Jazz. Nuyorican Soul is a mix of jazz, soul and Latin styles, produced by the Masters At Work crew – ‘Little’ Louie Vega and Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzalez out of the US Nuyorican community. New York Latin musicians such as India, Luisito Quintero, Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente and more appear on some tracks but it’s track 9 that features Roy Ayers providing scat vocals and vibes on the Vega/Gonzales composition Roy’s Scat. Ayers also provides vibes and vocals on a house-style take on his own tune 
I found Roy Ayers through the Robbie Vincent Soul Show on BBC Radio London which went out back in the day at Saturday lunchtimes. I am pretty sure the first Ayers tune I came across here was the jazz/funk/disco feeling club classic Running Away released in 1977 and written by Edwin Birdsong and Roy Ayers. Charged with a constant driving beat, the cheerful soul sister call and response style from a female quintet chanting Dippy-do Run, Run, Run and a groove that means you cannot keep still and have to groove along. What a tune! It sounds as fresh as ever and is surely still capable of filling dancefloors the world over. What is more, Roy Ayers, as so often in the ‘club’ tunes has not forgotten his jazz roots. His voice, never that of a powerful soul belter, has a relaxed, jazzy feel, just the perfect complement to the ‘choir’ and his vibes solo provides an improvisatory jazz break over the disco beat.
In the early 1970s Roy Ayers formed his own band Roy Ayers Ubiquity, a name chosen because it means a state of being everywhere at the same time. Members included Bernard Purdie, Edwin Birdsong and Harry Whitaker – the latter so much beloved and played by us for his work with Black Renaissance. Ubiquity were the ultimate in jazz/soul/funk fusion and brought Roy Ayers to the attention of club scenes, including the famous Gilles Peterson/Patrick Forge Sunday afternoons at Dingwall in Camden, North London. He’s A Superstar comes from the 1972 album He’s Coming and was inspired by the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. The album also includes one of our perennial favourites 
If you have heard much of John Surman’s music over the years you may be surprised to find one of his tunes on this jazz dance-orientated edition of Cosmic Jazz. Fear not, this is a terrific dance number and was found by Derek on a jazz-dance compilation although the original self-titled album emerged on the Deram label as long ago as 1969. There’s pulsating percussion, clarion-like group brass and a driving, soaring and simply unbelievable sax solo from Surman himself, leading to a wild conflagration of communal blowing, a percussion solo and more surprises before sax and bass wind things down. It just sounds as if the musicians were having such fun and enjoyment and any listener gets that vibe too. What a line-up this record has: Dave Holland on bass, Alan Jackson on drums and Kenny Wheeler and Harry Beckett on trumpets. John Surman is now 80 years old and announced recently that he will not be touring any more. But we’re sure he’ll still be making any more music and just this year (2024) he released his new album Words Unspoken on ECM Records.
We featured a track from this 2023 release earlier in the year. According to 
What’s The Story is a tune from pianist/keyboard player Patrice Rushen’s 1975 album Before The Dawn. It was also released on a 1998 CD release that also included her excellent album Prelusion. We love both of these – and if you’re looking for a vinyl copy of the latter record you should explore the 2024 re-release on the Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf series Craft label. What’s The Story is a funky/jazzy number that is driven along by the bass of Charles Meeks and drums of Harvey Mason, but the real excitement and complexity comes when Patrice Rushen steps to the fore on nimble, dexterous and fast-moving Fender Rhodes. Her band is both sizable and notable – Hubert Laws on flute, Lee Ritenour on guitar, George Bohannon on trombone, Oscar Brashear on flugelhorn with (on this track only) Josie James on vocals – who rather sadly seems to be stretching and struggling to keep up and be heard, not quite making it and getting overwhelmed by the other musicians.
Neil is a huge fan of Hungarian-bornDJ and remixer Opolopo (real name Peter Major). Born in Hungary but now resident in Sweden, he spent the early part of his creative development tagging along with a touring keyboardist father and listening to fusion and electronic records with musicians like Herbie Hancock, Jeff Lorber, Earth Wind & Fire, Quincy Jones and others feeding his nascent ingenuity with beats. He’s collaborated with or remixed vocalists Gregory Porter, Omar and Steve Arrington and musicians Shaun Escoffery, The Sunburst Band and Azymuth. Neil loves his take on Herbie Hancock’s Hang Up Your Hang Ups/Butterfly which appeared on a GAMM label 12in a few years ago and here Opolopo lends his magic to Stevie Wonder’s Superstition. On first listening you might be confused because this is much more Herbie Hancock than Stevie Wonder – the music clearly samples Wah Wah Watson’s guitar from Hang Up Your Hang Ups, adds a cool bass line, some Fender Rhodes and female background vocals before we hear the familiar sound of Stevie Wonder.
Neil loves this one – and this 2024 compilation was Gilles Peterson’s favourite too. Ayo Ke Disco celebrates the musical identities that emerged during the 1970s and 80s from the newly independent countries nestled around the South China Sea – Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Soundway Records’ expert Alice Whittington (aka DJ Norsicaa) embraced her Malaysian heritage and collection of Asian records to create this excellent new compilation. Ayo Ke Disco (which means Let’s go to the disco in Bahasa Indonesian) draws from local label disco-funk, funk, synth, city pop, and Hindustani-Arabic rhythms to create a snapshot of the vibrant discotheques of the region. Both the vinyl and the accompanying zine are now 
Hancock repeated the success of his infectious groove on Hang Up Your Hang Ups with Doin’ It from his 1976 album Secrets – and note the similarities between this and our previous tune… Herbie Hancock mastered the transition from Blue Note bop to disco grooves more authentically than anyone else in the jazz world, and his records for the Columbia label in the 1970s are all worth investigating. From the eponymous Headhunters record of 1973 to Thrust (1974), Manchild (1975) and Secrets (1976), these records demonstrate that genre-bending across jazz, funk and soul can really work.
Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool (1994) was one of the most successful incarnations of the Red Hot albums, each released to generate funds for fighting the AIDS virus. Unlike fellow albums in this series, which tended to focus on reworkings of classic songwriters, this release is all-new material with lyrics that directly address the AIDS epidemic – and liner notes by Professor Cornell West, to boot. The musicians involved include Ron Carter, Pharoah Sanders, and Donald Byrd but they’re performing alongside new blood from the world of rap – the Pharcyde, Guru, Michael Franti and MC Solaar. We’ve chosen a superb performance from bassist Me’Shell Ndegeocello, here performing with drummer Harvey Mason (again), guitarist Wah Wah Watson (again) and featuring a with a masterful contribution from Herbie Hancock (again!) on piano.
Vibesman Cal Tjader’s was something of a musical traveller, and his Brazilian explorations certainly deepened with this release in which he joins forces with a bunch of young Brazilian musicians, all overseen by producer Airto Moreira. The result is a triumph, with a heady mix of Afro-Brazilian rhythms, American funk and 1970s electronics all linking beautifully with Tjader’s vibes and marimba. There’s a take on Moreira’s Xibaba here, but we chose Non Noa – a Sergio Mendes tune – with a terrific trombone solo from Raul de Souza. Also on the album are Egberto Gismonti, David Amaro and the great Hermeto Pascoal with arrangements throughout by George Duke under the improbable contractual pseudonym of Dawilli Gonga.
The berimbau is a single stringed instrument played with a bow, originating in Angola but later popularised in Brazil. It has become a popular instrument in Brazilian music but is also the name of and key instrument in a tune written by Brazilian composers/musicians Baden Powell and Vinicius de Moraes. There have been many recorded versions of the tune by Brazilian artists including Astrud Gilberto, Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66, Tamba Trio, Virginia Rodrigues, Joyce and Tutty Moreno and many more. In New York, Cuban-born Latin great Celia Cruz recorded a version on Fania Records. And it is to New York and Fania Records (but a different generation from Celia Cruz) that we look to for this version released in 2013. Elements of Life is fluid group of musicians assembled by producer Louis Vega, featuring Josh Milan on vocals and Lisa Fischer on background vocals and vocal scats. There’s a trombone solo from Ozzie Melendez and the excellent Venezuelan-born Luisito Quintero is on drums, congas and percussion. The tune rocks along at a formidable pace, but somehow sounds restrained – and that’s just fine. The Brazilian feel is definitely there, but there is added NY cool and a deep club groove. We love the tune and, indeed, the whole 2CD set Eclipse – check it out if you can.
We have acknowledged the links between Latin music and jazz on Cosmic Jazz for some time. It is possible that many would see more obvious links between Brazilian music and jazz, but the association is there too in salsa – as we think our final two joyful tunes on this show prove. Both of them keep us in New York and the band on this track take their name from the small neighbourhood in New York where many Latinos, particularly Puerto Ricans, live and from which so much great Latin music has emerged. The title of the 2002 album, from which this number is taken, is Un Gran Dia en el Barrio (A Great Day in the Neighbourhood) which references that most famous of jazz photos, 
Louis Vega (see Berimbau above) returns – again via Fania Records. This time, he’s remixing a tune from Hector Lavoe (1946-1993), another Puerto Rican considered by many to be the greatest salsa singer and here singing to Mi Gente (My People). Lavoe had a distinctive voice delivered with such expression, playful enjoyment and emotion all of which is very evident in this tune. In the sleeve notes to the Elements of Life album Louis Vega described Hector Lavoe as ‘El Cantante de los Cantantes’. He sends a message to my dear uncle in heaven, thank you for teaching me so much… I remember to this day how you taught me about music, being an artist and leader, style and how much variation in all you did was so important. There’s not much you can add, except to say this number has more fine big band sounding musicianship – and great remixing too. There’s more great dialogue between lead vocalist and backing vocals, more in the way of joyful party time sounds and an incredible pace to the music. You would be challenged to stay still on listening to this tune. What better way could there be to end a programme of jazzy sounds for moving and grooving?
The last show included some excellent selections that featured the late drummer Roy Haynes. Derek, however, felt we had to play Dorian – a hauntingly beautiful tune we have featured before on Cosmic Jazz. It’s one of those numbers which when Derek plays it he has to repeat immediately. Luckily, he has all three options where the tune can be found (see above) to make the search easier. Originally, it appeared on the 1963 New Jazz Records LP Cracklin with Booker Ervin in tenor saxophone, pianist and composer Ronnie Matthews and Larry Ridley on bass. The recording was by Rudy Van Gelder. The sleeve notes, written by Ira Gitler, sum the tune up well: Dorian is a modal piece that revolves in a loping gait. It has both charm and pathos. In addition to Ervin and Matthews, there is a sensitive solo by Ridley, and highly complementary backing by Haynes. It is, just one of those numbers you have to hear.
Alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson died on 9 November 2024 (born 1 November 1926). Among the musicians he played with in the 1950s and 1960s were Jackie McLean, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, Milt Jackson, Kenny Clarke, Art Blakey and Horace Silver. In 1952 he signed to Blue Note Records and Gravy Train is a 1961 release with production by Alfred Lion and Rudy Van Gelder (again) as recording engineer. Donaldson was one of the classic Blue Note hard bop players and the title track has a soulful feel that swings along – enough to make you want to move and groove. Herman Foster wheels away on piano and gets a solo, Alec Dorsey on conga brings a rhythmic emphasis to the music and Ben Tucker is on bass with Dave Bailey on drums. Gravy Train is not the most innovative or groundbreaking of records – but it is solid Blue Note with much to be enjoyed. Donaldson is actually the most sampled Blue Note artist with over 200 samples appearing on numerous hip hop recordings – including 
UK tenor saxophonist Xhosa Cole was the winner of the BBC Young Jazz Musician 2018 – and the youngest winner ever. Since then he’s gone from strength to strength. He won the 2021 UK Parliamentary Jazz Award for Best Newcomer, has headlined at Ronnie Scott’s, has performed multiple times at the BBC Proms, and has collaborated with Shabaka Hutchins, Soweto Kinch and Jay Phelps. Listen to him 
Up next were two new albums from Edition Records – the first from Finnish pianist Tuomarila and his trio, the second a new live at the celebrated Village Vanguard record from saxophonist Ben Wendel. Let’s start with Alex Tuomarila – and we should say straight away that we really like this one. This time, Tuomarila’s trio is augmented by guitarist André Fernandes, trombonist Gil Silva, tenor player José Pedro Coelho and altoist/flautist João Guimarães with Tuomarila adding extra electronics. The album was recorded in Porto – a suggestion from guitarist Fernandes – but the music hasn’t lost its Finnish character: the washes of synth and post-production work make the whole feel more composed than the earlier piano trio records. Tuomarila has said that this album not only marks 20 years of playing together but a start to a new era of writing and creativity. I feel like I’m just getting started, somewhat reborn, and that excites me to explore new musical ideas and discover new ways to interpret my playing as well as how we play together as a trio. 
We’ve played music from this album on 
The show now winds down with more ethereal Scandi-jazz from Daniel Herskedal’s new album Call for Winter II: Resonance. Recorded in a cabin in the mountains near Røros in Norway during the depths of winter 2024, Herskedal is, as usual, on bass trumpeter and tuba but there’s lots of overdubbing and electronic beats on this, the title track. The music overall is dark and sombre but here lighter and more lyrical than one might expect from the recording location and instrumentation. The stark, breathtaking Norwegian landscape is always a key element in Herskedal’s work and – as with the first Call for Winter album – it’s very much present here. Worth investigating if you like John Surman’s excellent multitracked solo albums – for example, Private City and Road to St. Ives.
We begin with a title that makes a statement about the ups and downs of the world written by the Philadelphia songwriting team of Thom Bell and Linda Creed. It was released originally by The Stylistics in 1972 and became a Billboard Top 30 hit. This version was released in 1974 by Dee Dee Bridgewater on her excellent Afro Blue album. Dee Dee Bridgewater provides vocals that are tender but assertive, Roland Hanna wheels away on piano throughout and there are some notable interventions from Cecil Bridgewater on trumpet. It is, though, people from around the world that make this tune and the whole album go round. Besides Dee Dee, Cecil and Ron Bridgewater and Roland Hanna from the USA there is Czech-born George Mraz on bass and Japanese drummer Motohiko Hino on drums, while the recording was made in Tokyo studios with a Japanese producer (T. Ishuka) and a Japanese director (H. Matsumoto).
Abbey Lincoln was a Chicago-born vocalist, actress and civil rights activist who was featured on one of the most important political jazz albums – Max Roach’s We Insist, Freedom Now Suite. The musicians on the album were all from the USA but after a tour to the continent of Africa in the mid-1970s Abbey Lincoln asserted her heritage by adopting the name Aminata Maseka. The pianist on the album, Hilton Ruiz, was more commonly associated with Latin music and came from Puerto Rican heritage. Archie Shepp, another pioneer of political jazz music, was on saxes. This version of the tune and the album provides another example of Americans making recordings beyond their borders. It was recorded in Paris in 1980 with French producers.
This tune incorporates music that stretches wider than the jazz tradition. It comes from from Tunisian-born Anouar Brahem, a master oud player. The oud is an age-old traditional Oriental stringed instrument with the musical heritage of the Arab and Islamic worlds. On this album we find him playing with jazz musicians while this tune title suggests interest on another continent. Anouhar Braheem was a classically trained oud player but as a teenager found jazz interesting and believed that although jazz was associated for him with music that had greater freedom and experimentation, it could be merged with the music he was playing. On this 2017 album all the other musicians are from a jazz background and from across two different countries and continents with Jack DeJohnette from the USA on drums and Django Bates on piano and Dave Holland on bass from the UK.
jazz that is demanding and challenging. This tune is wild, free and complex. The musicians are from different heritages and they bring those experiences to the music. Guest Laurie Anderson on violin is not normally associated with jazz; vibraphone player Patricia Brennan was born in Mexico where she began by playing salsa, moved on to top Mexican symphony orchestras and then moved to New York’s jazz community. The latest album with her sextet 
The next selection provides a contrast to the last tune courtesy of Birnam Records in Scotland. In the 2000s band leader Dan Somogyi went on a British Council music education study trip to Cape Town and the Western Cape in South Africa, which built on previous personal trips to South and East Africa and his experiences playing with bands in London – for example, Soothsayers. The study trip led to a year-long education project culminating in a concert Footprints of South Africa for which Thokazile were formed as the house band. The album includes tunes written by Tony Allen, Mthutuzeli Dudu Pukwana, Robin J. Hopcraft and Idris Rahman of Soothsayers and others, but Hound Cat is an original composition from the Thokozile guitarist Rob Palmer “inspired by a Tony Allen drum groove”. It sounds good, with Palmer’s guitar enhanced by a sax solo from Terry Quinney. We just need to add, in the context of this show, the band has members from Senegal, Canada and the UK, the latter including a UK musician with Hungarian heritage.
By now we are, not talking of jazz with influence and influencers from wider heritages but music which draws upon the structures of jazz. This is soukous/rumba from D R Congo. Vocalist, composer and later politician Tabu Ley Rochereau, was one of D R Congo’s greatest. He progressed through work with prominent musicians and then went on to lead his own bands. This tune, from 1977, was from the band Onaza (Orchestra National du Zaire) that he led and took to the second international Festival of African Culture in Lagos, Nigeria. His voice was distinctive ‘the Voice of Lightness’ but in that ‘lightness’ there is much emotion. The music was essentially Congolese soukous/rumba but there were influences from soul, funk and jazz as musicians have the freedom to demonstrate their improvisational skills. The tune Likambo ya Mokanda illustrates this freedom with, to quote the CD liner notes, Tabu Ley Rochereau giving the drummers an intense workout and letting the horn players run rampant, veering between his sure direction and Zaikodelic (ref. to DRC band Zaiko Langa Langa) beau desordre. It all comes across like a very big, big band. Even Tabu Ley Rochereau himself on vocals sounds as if he is freewheeling at times, with at some points echoes of an Indian raga and apparently lyrics that begin as an anthem of African pride but then turn unexpectedly into the tale of a letter delivered to the wrong address then ending with hallelujahs and amens. Along the way we find words in the languages of Lingala, French and English. The whole double album is just wonderful.