Album Picks: Malcolm Jiyane Tree-O – Umdali [Mushroom Hour Half Hour]

Johannesburg multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Jiyane (SPAZA: UPRIZE!) releases his long-awaited debut LP UMDALI via Mushroom Hour Half Hour.

A generous sideman and bandleader, multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Jiyane stands at the vanguard of his prodigious generation of jazz musicians. Operating from the centre and the fringes of the South African jazz scene, the trombonist (and pianist) is an enigmatic yet charismatic galvaniser of his contemporaries, able to put them through their paces in his own compositions, while giving them enough room to interpret them anew. In UMDALI, his debut album as frontman, Jiyane delivers not only a major contribution to the canon -- one shaped around dedications to key figures in his personal and professional life -- but an honest snapshot of his personal circumstances at the time of recording.

Positioned at the edge of this precipice, Jiyane turned to a core of talented musicians mostly based around Soweto's jamming scene, as well as to key figures in his own creative trajectory. The coterie of bassist Ayanda Zalekile, drummer Lungile Kunene, percussionist Gontse Makhene (SPAZA, Shabaka & The Ancestors), pianist Nkosinathi Mathunjwa, saxophonist Nhlanhla Mahlangu and trumpeters Brandon Ruiters and Tebogo Seitei shrouded him in his time of need, providing intuitive musicianship through which to execute his ideas, and, more importantly, life-affirming comradeship.

Listen to Malcolm Jiyane debut solo album UMDALI: