On Our Own Clock

What with the London-based 16-piece Balimaya Project and a host of other new collectives finding strength in numbers, a happy side effect of the pandemic has been the re-emergence of big bands. On Our Own Clock is one such enterprise: 14 crack musicians collaborating across cities, bandwidths, oceans and mp3s, digging into a treasure trove of South African jazz, traditional Senegalese instrumental music and the diaspora-rich sounds of London. Malleability was key from the get-go; it's to the credit of players including tuba don Theon Cross, Balimaya Project's Yahael Camara Onono and Jo'burg singer/trombonist Siya Makuzeni that these 11 wonderfully varied pieces of music ooze invention and togetherness.

Beginning, fittingly, with one of three interludes-come-motivations titled ‘How to Make Art in a Pandemic’, the project explores notions of time and spirituality on tracks including the snaking, Alice Coltrane-esque ‘Dune Dance’ and the shiny brass-pumped ‘Ngikhethile’ (loosely, isiZulu for ‘I Have Chosen’). Moments of transcendence abound, sticking a metaphorical two fingers up to both COVID-19 and racism; ‘(Tell the Gods) We Still Building’, with its swaying grooves and stinging social commentary, feels like an old skool classic. There's a fanzine, session footage and a film too.