Monoswezi: The Village

On paper this is a north European jazz band — the founder/saxophonist is Norwegian, the band has received financial support from the Norsk kulturråd — but the lead singer Hope Masike comes from Mozambique and southern Africa is the music’s muse, kept very cool by the jazz-brass, which lingers around her while she makes reckless instinctive-sounding moves from one note into another. This lingering affects her too, she’s slower than she could be, her reckless style teases itself against the instruments, she plays a Shona pattern on her mbira, and her voice gives the music a prickly kind of rebellious life. This sound of a naturally fast impulse, the jump between hum and high “Aow!” the warmth of her smiling delivery, being drawn out by this communal icy-cool focus, is wonderful and delicate.