‘From the trios of pianists Kyle Shepherd, Bokani Dyer and Yonela Mnana, to the genre-defying exploits of guitarists Vuma Levin and Reza Khota; and from artists inspired by age-old traditions, like Lwanda Gogwana and Mandisi Dyantyis, to the cosmic explorations of Siya Makuzeni, Benjamin Jephta, Thandi Ntuli, Zoë Modiga and Shane Cooper’s Mabuta’  — Johannesburg label Afrosynth rounds up some of SA’s most talented young composers and bandleaders, as well as a wider cast of supporting musicians.

The return of the AACM flautist to the visionary, Afro-futurist science fiction of Octavia Butler, alongside theremin-player Harris, together with fellow Chicago luminaries like cellist Tomeka Reid and trumpeter Ben LaMar Gay.
Tumultuous, visceral musical reflections on Butler’s ideas about Apocalypse, power, hybridity-versus-identity, race and feminism. ‘Writing myself in,’ she called it.

‘Stunning, moody, spiritual jazz from Ireland, recorded in 1979; featuring original compositions such as the deep collectors’ cut Spon Song, subtle Latin flavours on Spacer’s Delight, and a beautiful modal arrangement of the traditional Irish air Castle of Dromore.
‘A legendary recording in Ireland, Ozone reflects Kelehan’s keen appreciation of classic quintet-era Miles, with touches of the cerebral fusion of Ian Carr and the arranging genius of Neil Ardley. Not just a landmark Irish jazz set, Ozone is a lost classic of European jazz more widely.’

Licensed from producer John D’Ardis. Remastered at Abbey Road using the master-tapes; cut at D&M; pressed at Pallas. Presented with previously unseen photographs of the band, and their commentary.
A deadly trump card from Outernational. Essential, startling stuff. Bim bim bim.

With Stanley Clarke, Cecil McBee, Eddie Henderson, Carlos Garnett, Gary Bartz and Buster Williams.

Two spellbinding extended improvisations referring to meteorological and planetary phenomena: evocations of light, wind, clouds, and tidal cycles as shimmering, roaring, rubbing, coalescing and diverging environments of sound; consistent and yet in perpetual flux. The quartet’s signature, singular, honed minimalism subsumes flashes of chaos into winding paths of musical detail; hushed but suspenseful.

Quietly ravishing, stunning music from Norway, by trumpeter Torstein Lavik Larsen, double bassist Adrian Fiskum Myhr, guitarist Fredrik Rasten, and drummer Jan Martin Gismervik.
Gorgeously presented, in a tiny run.
Warmly recommended.
Something else.

Ace jazz-funk — somewhere between Herbie and RTF — originally released in Finland in 1976, on Love. Featuring the almighty jazz-dance classic Grandma’s Rocking Chair (later revisited by Kenny Dope and Ol’ Dirty Bastard), with Olli soloing on Fender Rhodes.

Opening in 1973, tucked into a tangle of railway parts scattered across an industrial park at the western edge of Orlando East, Club Pelican was Soweto’s first night-club, and its premier live music venue throughout the seventies.
Pretty much everyone on the scene passed through its doors — to sing, or perform in the house band, or hang out. Schooled in standards, and fluent in the local musical vernacular, the music would take off in different directions at a moment’s notice — SA twists on jazz, funk, fusion, disco — spurred by the sounds coming in from Philadelphia, Detroit and New York City.
One Night In Pelican encapsulates these halcyon times, with a musical roll call of all the key groups and players, besides evocative, previously-unseen photographs, cover artwork by Zulu ‘Batsumi’ Bidi, and notes by Kwanele Sosibo, lit up by a gallery of first-person testimony.

‘A collection of canonical, mature acoustic guitar soli to contrast against the fractured downtown conceits of previous acoustic releases… Jump On It, with its living-room aesthetics and big reverb, packs a disarming intimacy absent from the formal starkness of Orcutt’s earlier acoustic outings… Not quite refuting (yet not quite embracing) the polish of revered watershed records by Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, or Bola Sete, Jump On It treads a path between the raw and the refined… Each track is a key to a memory, a building block in a shining anamnesis leading to the recollection that hey, we’re all humans in a shared cosmos, and music is one way we might make that universe go down easy. And who wouldn’t jump on that?’ (Tom Carter)

‘What really impressed was its precision, its 14 guitar miniatures bringing to mind the cascading melodies of Steve Reich, or Malian kora music… There’s so much going on in these dense constructions, you’re likely to hear new layers and combinations with each spin’ (The Wire, Releases Of The Year).