Taken from a collaboration of two jazz legends – Tony Allen, and the late Hugh Masekela, Slow Bones is taken from the forthcoming album ‘Rejoice’, out on World Circuit on March 20th.
The track is (as expected) a steady almost blues-bop. The accompanying players, which include Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective) and Steve Williamson on Saxophone, keep out of the limelight for the most part – the exception when Williamson takes over the track and gives it this sort of eastern feel, playing across the beats and intervals with a unique swings and insight.
It’s Allens persuasive, almost melodic and certainly dynamic and pulsating afrobeat drumming that drives the track, while Masekela’s effortless soloing in this, his first posthumous release, shows why we need to keep the word of his playing alive.
As for the title, Allen says “I don’t know why this track is called Slow Bones. Hugh came up with all the song titles while we were recording in 2010, and we’ve left them exactly as he wrote them down. It’s amazing to think that it was 10 years ago. But everything eventually appears at the right time, for a reason.”
Check it out, here
