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Release Date: 10 January 2025
Label: Stoney Lane Records
Packaging Type: Slip Sleeve (CD or Vinyl)
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 5052442026358
Genres: Jazz Contemporary
Description
Acclaimed young saxophonist Xhosa Cole is to release his third album with Birmingham's Stoney Lane Records - a dynamic live recording celebrating the work of transcendent pianist Thelonious Monk, with inventive interpretations of Monk's timeless compositions.
Following his much-admired debut K(no)w Them, K(no)w Us (2021), and intriguing concept recording Ibeji (2022) - featuring Cole in duets with seven percussionists from across the African diaspora, this new release captures Cole with his quartet during an extensive spring tour of the UK in 2023 playing the music of Monk.
Opening with the iconic melody Trinkle-Tinkle, the album also features American tap dancer Liberty Styles on four tracks. "My early roots are in African dance and so when tap dancer Liberty Styles and I saw that she was dancing what I was hearing (and they saw that I was playing what they were feeling) we knew this was a musical connection to life. This album is a celebration of friendship, joy and improvisation - it's a snapshot into the love that you can only find on the road with friends."
The seven tracks of On A Modern Genuis (Vol.1) weave together nine Monk tunes, with the album closing with Duke Ellington's Come Sunday, featuring celebrated vocalist Heidi Vogel singing on a piece she and Cole played together at the BBC Proms. "Ellington has such a strong musical resonance with Monk," notes Cole."I wanted to honour these tunes that have given so much to this vast family tree that is music, and to celebrate their composer, a person who epitomised grace."
In the three years since the release of his debut album K(no)w Them, K(no)w Us on Stoney Lane Records, Cole's career has launched into the contemporary classical and free jazz communities of Europe and beyond, earning widespread praise on both sides of the Atlantic, working with internationally acclaimed artists including Hamid Drake, Elaine Mitchener, Jason Yarde, Majid Bekkas, Pat Thomas and Mark Sanders. He has numerous headline appearances from Ronnie Scott's to Pizza Express, also supporting jazz legend Cecile McLorin Salvant at Cadogan Hall for the London Jazz Festival. As a composer, he has been commissioned by the BBC, Aldeburgh Festival, Flatpack Film Festival and Symphony Hall Birmingham, and also appeared twice at the BBC Proms.
"A British sensation and proves that he's here for blood with this release...He's got technique, talent, artistry and a burning desire that shows throughout the set."- Downbeat
Tracklisting
Sara Colman
Xhosa Cole
Trish Clowes & Ross Stanley
Paul Dunmall Quintet (with Ed Puddick & the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Big Band)
Steve Banks
Mike Fletcher
TG Collective
Mark Pringle
Xhosa Cole
Xhosa Cole
