Finish the Sun

Shane Cooper & MABUTA are often referred to as part of a new wave of South African jazz artists. But more apt would be to see this sensational collective as flagbearers of the country’s historic Indigenous jazz legacy; as part of a continuum of one of the most singular and rich musical forms of the past 100 years. On second album Finish the Sun, Cooper (basses, synths, guitars, Rhodes, percussion), Bokani Dyer (piano, organ), Sisonke Xonti (tenor sax, bass clarinet) and Robin Fassie (trumpet), with a selection of guest drummers, conjure up a soundscape that you’ll be unwilling to leave, much like the setting sun that Cooper says inspired the album’s title.

Unmistakably rooted in South Africa (the title of the wonderful, maskandi-inflected ‘Where the Heart Is’ rings clear), the eight-track album is also a deeply-felt and rendered love letter to the remarkable sounds of Mali, Nigeria, the Sahel and Morocco. Cooper’s compositional risk-taking – evidenced in his Card on Spokes output – also surfaces with ease, the seven-minute-long, psychedelic-propelled ‘Flow’ feeling fit for both a jazz stage and a late-night Jo’burg club, while ‘The Walk’ does justice to its title, an addictive stroll through a lush, melodic canvas.