South African drummer Asher Gamedze was first heard from on Angel Bat Dawid’s The Oracle (2019), which was released on Chicago’s finest: the superb (jazz) label International Anthem (see too: Alabaster DePlume, Jaimie Branch, Ben LaMar Gay). Gamedze absorbs in a unique way the music of jazz icons like The Art Ensemble of Chicago & John Coltrane and combines it with a keen political awareness.

His debut Dialectic Soul (2020) went straight into The New York Times’ Best Jazz Albums chart that year: “A debut that augurs more brilliance ahead.” Follow-up Turbulence and Pulse (2023) provided immediate proof of that, according to All About Jazz: “It’s a magnificent, gutsy, stirring piece of work, authentic to its core."

In addition to his ten-piece ensemble Black Lungs, his quintet Another Time Ensemble and his Turbulence and Pulse Quartet, Gamedze is now taking a new step in his artistic growth with A Semblance. On Instagram, Gamedze describes A Semblance as ‘= (new band + tunes) × (approach/search)’.

Online platform Cape Creative Collective already saw them at work in Cape Town and wrote: “An insinuation of John Coltrane here, a mention of the Charles Mingus madness there, a wave of Stan Getz’s mellow mood … It’s uncharted territory. It’s magnificent. It’s the most interesting, invigorating and new music being made in the world at the moment.”

Those wanting to read more about Asher Gamedze - A Semblance, can head here.

Line-up:

Asher Gamedze: drums

Zwide Ndwandwe: bass

Nobuhle Ashanti: keys

Keegan Steenkamp: trumpet

Ru Slayen: percussion