Xhosa Cole: On A Modern Genius (Vol​.​1)

Xhosa Cole has moved forward constantly, since winning the 2018 BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year award. He has released two studio albums: K(no)w Them, K(no)w Us (Stoney Lane Records, 2021) featuring saxophonist, Soweto Kinch and pianist, Reuben James and Ibeji (Stoney Lane Records, 2022), featuring seven percussionists with African roots. This 2025 release has Cole with his quartet during their 38-date spring tour of the UK in 2023 playing the music of Thelonious Monk.

Cole is a restless improviser and thinker. He chafes at the boundaries, playing twice at the BBC Proms and composing music for the Ripieno Players, a Birmingham-based string orchestra. The third album has Cole as a turbulent improviser. It is interesting that he has chosen to work from the Monk themes and to use them as a starting point.

Cole's music is a vibrant blend of tradition and innovation. His fluid tenor saxophone, soaring through the higher registers, weaves intricate lines with an urgency and emotional depth. He explores Monk's themes with respect, yet injects them with vivacity. Cole's sound is declamatory, fluent and flowing, using the higher reaches of the horn and moving quickly, almost pleadingly, going for beauty, inserting new ideas to build climaxes, not afraid of incongruity and repetition for effect. He is not hidebound, chained by the rules, but, equally, not willing to court incoherence. His improvisations strike a balance between emotional, spiritual and intellectual elements, creating music that is both felt deeply and intellectually engaging. His own distinctive voice creates an important dialogue between past and present.

In "Misterioso," the big fat bass sound fills the room with assertive certainty. The depth of sound, the pluck of the strings is propulsive. There is the gradual introduction of a defined rhythm with the drums and tenor working together, before guitar enters. This was always a young person's music. Still is.

Cole's sound has tradition at its heart and the exploration of the tenor sound in all its varied beauty. He wanders mightily across the melody and there is urgency as he explores the final transition into "Straight No Chaser." It is peremptory yet exciting. The fade cuts off a gateway into another realm.

The album features the inclusion of tap dancer and singer Liberty Styles, an intriguing element. While her contributions are not always seamlessly integrated, they add an unexpected layer to the music, reflecting Cole's own background in dance.

Duke Ellington sometimes used tap dancing in his sacred concerts; one in San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, used Bunny Briggs. In typical Ellington language he described Briggs as "the most superleviathonic, rhythmaturgically syncopated, tapsthamaticianismatist." Briggs danced the section "And David Danced Before The Lord With All His Might."

However, Ellington judiciously used him for just one number whereas Styles is on four of the tracks, adding an unexpected layer to the music. It is an interesting experiment. Styles also designed the artwork for the album. Ellington's "Come Sunday" has a pungent vocal from Heidi Vogel. Ellington played this piece in 1966 when the orchestra played at Coventry Cathedral. The melody at that time was played by Johnny Hodges.

Cole has surrounded himself with exciting musicians, players who have their own concerns and wide-ranging visions whose aspirations are loosely tethered to jazz and exciting new music. All of them, including Cole are products of the vital music scene in Birmingham. Drummer Nathan England Jones graduated from the Birmingham Conservatoire. Steve Saunders' interests are not confined to playing the guitar. He composes and works on the interface between jazz and classical music, merging the techniques of contemporary composers. He also works with saxophonist Paul Dunmall. Josh Vadiveloo (bass), blending Ghanaian highlife with jazz.

This album is a testament to the vitality of the young jazz scene. Cole and his band re-interpret Monk's music with a fresh energy, pushing at the boundaries of jazz while honoring its rich legacy.

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