Spice Jazz Soho Presents: Equal Spirits, ‘Wise and Waiting’

After 25 years of solid jazz promoting, as founded by Paul Pace, at the Spice of Life Soho, nurturing upcoming talents as well as established masters of the music, the SpiceJazz Team (Tara Minton and Clement Regert) are excited to relocate their acclaimed operation to the well-appointed and stylish music room of Crazy Coqs.

Led by composer/arranger/multi-instrumentalist Raph Clarkson, Equal Spirits brings together a genre-defying mix of South African spiritual jazz, ambient improvised introspection, bursts of old-school hip-hop and electronica, soaring melodies, synths, samples and gospel-infused grooves, woven together with sung and spoken languages from Zulu to English.

Their debut album, ‘Wise and Waiting,’ released this year on Ubuntu Music, celebrates the profound and beautiful contribution made by South African musicians to British Jazz and Improvised music.

Line up:
Xolani Mbatha – vocals
Raph Clarkson – trombone and vocals
Chris Batchelor – trumpet and flugelhorn
Phil Merriman – keys/synths
Riaan Vosloo – double bass
Yuval Wetzler – drums/SPDS

“joyous and uplifting” – Jamie Cullum BBC radio2

“Something to feed the soul” – Soweto Kinch BBC radio 3

“Extraordinary, impassioned… the legacy of the great South African generations…as well as their European champions…have rarely been celebrated as empathically and ecstatically as this” – John Fordham, Jazzwise Magazine

“fresh and inspiring…worth the wait” – Jon Turney, uk jazz news

“saluting the greats of South African jazz, [equal spirits] create a rousing, unified sound” – Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise magazine

“What is so thrilling about the music presented by Equal Spirits is the way it touches on all our emotions from the from sadness to joy, thought provoking texts that both stimulate and fuel the mind and lift the spirit.” – Nick Lea, Jazz Views

“weaves together the joys of South African music” – Chris Phillips jazz fm