Wise and Waiting Equal Spirits

• 1Back Again07:18
• 2Egoli Affirmation02:39
• 3Skip06:43
• 4Dancing Under The Sun05:25
• 5Hymn07:29
• 6Tlang Re Keteke07:07
• 7Closing07:17
• 8Phezulu, Ezulwini02:41
• 9Recitative02:25
• 10Chorale06:24
• 11To Jo’burg04:21
• 12Wise and Waiting08:27
• 13Travail08:08
• Total Runtime01:16:24

Info for Wise and Waiting

Equal Spirits brings together a genre-defying mix of South African spiritual jazz, ambient improvised introspection, bursts of old-school hip-hop and electronica, soaring melodies, synths, samples and gospel-infused grooves, woven together with sung and spoken languages from Zulu, Sotho, Yoruba and Xhosa to Arabic and English.

"Shared humanity and connectedness… the beauty of many becoming one."

Over the past two decades trombonist-composer Raph Clarkson has proved to be one of the most dynamic figures in British jazz. Leader of the critically acclaimed orchestra, Dissolute Society he has put together a new band, Equal Spirits that makes its debut with a stunning album Wise And Waiting. The music reflects the open-minded and inquisitive approach to making music that has characterised Clarkson’s career to date and draws on many rich sources, from South African spiritual jazz to electronica to dance grooves. Also in the mix are sung choruses and passages of spoken word that showcase the beauty of the Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Yoruba, Arabic and English languages. The record is joyously global in nature and universal in outlook.

Throughout the album there are important social as well as musical histories. ‘To Joburg’, which has punchy Fela-like horns, evokes a journey to the titular South African city, a major urban centre that has long been marked by migration and family fragmentation, a hot button theme at the moment. ‘Back Again’ has the distinct ghoema rhythmic feel associated with Cape Town. As for ‘Skip’ it is a surprise package, as the gentle pastoral opening gives way to playful brass-led funk.

Equal Spirits is an international combo that features no fewer than 24 musicians from across Britain, Europe, and Africa. They include Johannesburg players, drummer Siphiwe Shiburi, bassist Amaeshi Ikechi, pianist-vocalist Yonela Mnana, vocalist Nosihe and spoken word artist Nozaka. Among the noted British musicians in the fold are saxophonist Mark Lockheart and trumpeter Chris Batchelor, who was part of the legendary 1970s South African-British big band, Brotherhood Of Breath.

As he has shown on previous releases such as This Is How We Grow, Itself And One, I Sing With The Earth and Ada Lovelace, Clarkson makes strong personal statements through his music, which can reference education, community and environmental issues. Equal Spirits, with its self-evidently fraternal and democratic sentiment, is a celebration of the fearless musicians of South Africa, who endured the evils of apartheid and made a worldwide impact. Icons such as, Bheki Mseleku, Abdullah Ibrahim, Dudu Pukwana and Mongezi Feza are all noted inspirations for Clarkson’s writing. And so too are the great British jazz artists who played with several of the aforementioned, notably Django Bates and Keith Tippett. But Clarkson, a Bristol native who studied with Tippett at Dartington International Summer School, developed a more personal connection with South Africa when he started working with another one of its respected expatriates, pianist-harmonica player Adam Glasser.

There then came a tour of the country in 2018, a deeply immersive experience that saw Clarkson play with musicians from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. A recording was the next logical step, and the project became yet more exciting when the renowned producer Sonny Johns, a Grammy nominee admired for his work with Tony Allen, Fatoumata Diawara and Hugh Masekela among others, came on board.

Never one to lack ambition, Clarkson has created an enviably rich palette on Wise And Waiting, which, in addition to the aforesaid South African and British players, features strings, percussion and a church organ, as well as sampling and processing by the inventive pianist-keyboardist Elliot Galvin. The myriad layers of sound make for a captivating listen that vividly evokes ‘shared humanity and connectedness’. Equal Spirits wear their name well. Their music is the beauty of many becoming one. (Kevin Le Gendre)

Nosihe Zulu, vocals, spoken word
NoZaka, vocals, spoken word
Amaeshi Ikechi, double and electric bass, vocals
Siphiwe Shiburi, drums, vocals
Chris Batchelor, trumpet, flugelhorn
Mark Lockheart, saxophone
Yonela Mnana, piano, vocals
Chloe Morgan, soprano vocals
Rosie Middleton, alto vocals
Michael Solomon Williams, tenor vocals
Ben Rowarth, bass vocals
Phil Merriman, keyboards, Hammond, organ, synthesizer
Raph Clarkson, leader, trombone, vocals

The Equal Spirits
project has its beginnings in Raph Clarkson’s love of South African Township Jazz. With the huge legacy gifted to UK Jazz by South African exiled musicians from the 1960s onwards, British/London jazz of the 2000s and 2010s naturally supported music making inspired by South Africa and South African musicians. Raph found himself playing the music of the SA jazz greats in a variety of ensembles, before developing a connection with SA harmonica and piano player Adam Glasser.

Raph’s interest developed to a point where he wanted to delve deeper, and with the support of funding from Help Musicians UK, developed a project with Adam’s help that led to him touring South Africa in 2018 with three different sets of musicians in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, and for which he wrote a set of original material. Such was the success of this trip, that Raph asked Sonny Johns to produce a recording on a return trip in 2020.

The core rhythm section/ensemble was drawn from the 2018 Johannesburg band, with Nosihe Zulu an audience member for the 2018 Durban gig, who then took on one of the tracks - ‘Skip’ - and wrote her own melody and Zulu lyrics in 2018-19. This led to Raph inviting her to be part of the core 2020 recording.

When it came to the 2020 recording project, there were three essential creative-process threads:

- fully formed compositions (from 2018) by Raph that gave space for improvisation and creative contributions from the core musicians

- compositions (from 2018) that became Equal collaborations alongside Nosihe and NoZaka, with the vocalists often contributing melodies and lyrics to Raph’s (and Amaeshi Ikechi’s) instrumental sketches

- completely democratic group improvisations, that were later edited into structures by Sonny and Raph, and added to with arrangements for and by UK and SA musicians

The 2020 Johannesburg recording took place at Peter Auret’s famed Sumo Studio - and it became just the first step in an organic process of continued editing, mixing, arrangement, further recording and layering, rearrangement, re- editing, re-mixing, etc, over the next year and a half. A series of UK musicians added their creative and instrumental voices to the record, as did core SA band musicians, with Sonny shaping the process towards the album’s final iteration.

UK contributions ranged from a string quartet, an SATB four piece ‘choir’, to sampling/processing by Elliot Galvin, three different percussionists, synths/church organ/Hammond organ, and a horn section including Mark Lockheart and Chris Batchelor (who was part of Chris Macgregor’s Brotherhood of Breath and has toured South Africa with Tete Mbambisa).

At its heart, the Equal Spirits ensemble and Wise and Waiting are creative endeavours that seek to celebrate our shared humanity, our connectedness, and the precious equality of our deepest artistic expressions.

This album contains no booklet.