Xhosa Cole, the acclaimed 24 year-old award-winning saxophonist, is to release his much-anticipated debut album this summer, celebrating the rich tapestry of music and heritage of great African-American composers and improvisers - formative influences on his life and music - through a contemporary black British lens. "... Cole expressed a touchingly modest reverence towards his great forebears, but there's absolutely nothing modest about his playing, which is madly inventive at every moment and remarkably individual for one so young." - The Telegraph.
Featuring special guest appearances from fellow Birmingham-raised musicians MOBO-winning saxophonist Soweto Kinch and celebrated pianist Reuben James - K(no)w Them, K(no)w Us takes its inspiration from words by the great Dizzy Gillespie about Louis Armstrong - 'no him, no me.' As Cole explains, "this album acknowledges the shoulders on which all of the musicians in the band stand as one. To understand me and my music is to understand all the amazing teachers and musicians who have helped me along this path - without the greats who helped to forge this journey over half a century ago we wouldn't be lucky enough to be walking in their footsteps today.".
Cole, who won the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year in 2018, is already in demand performing nationwide from the BBC Proms to Ronnie Scott's, alongside artists including Monty Alexander and Courtney Pine. Last year, he landed the Parliamentary Jazz Award for Best Newcomer, before heading into the studio to record his debut album following a mammouth 23-date UK tour with his Quartet, featuring trumpeter Jay Phelps, bassist James Owston and drummer Jim Bashford.
As a recording artist, Xhosa has featured on Soweto Kinch's latest album Black Peril, and also recorded for UK R&B singer songwriter Mahalia's critically acclaimed debut Love and Compromise.
Full of warmth, character and authenticity, K(no)w Them, K(no)w Us features seven pieces all with strong meaning to Cole. Opening with trumpeter Woody Shaw's Zoltan, Xhosa recalls spending his late teens at Edgbaston reservoir in Birmingham repeatedly listening to clips of the album with a friend - "trying to milk all the little nuggets of information out of those moments of pure genius." What's New (Bob Haggart) was one of the very first jazz tunes Xhosa remembers hearing, from one of his favourite vocalists Ella Fitzgerald. "I'm what you call a hopeless romantic, which is why the old American song books resonate with me and get me all up in my feels!" Further tracks feature music from heroes Ornette Coleman, Lee Morgan and Thelonious Monk. "There is no composer like Monk and there is no pianist like Monk. The depth of his groove coupled with his harmonic commitment and integrity makes for one BAD musician! I've learned so much trying to prize open his compositions - you have to mine for the abundance of gold and treasures he's left humanity."
