Out on Birmingham label Stoney Lane Brum saxophone star Xhosa Cole is here on a radio edit of 'Zoltan' from K​(​no​)​w Them, K​(​no​)​w Us to be released later this year. Hearing the track takes us back to a pre-Lockdown show at London jazz club the Vortex in March last year when themed around the Larry Young Blue Note album Unity released in 1966 delivered in the second set of the concert world class tenor saxophonist Cole played 'Zoltan' that night with Jay Phelps also on the new track as is drummer Basford who that night was playing the Elvin Jones role. Cole of course was our Joe Henderson and Jay, Woody Shaw. Cole has a fantastic technique and his solos have an intensity to them even when his timbre is light and airy there is strength and stamina to his method and plenty of detours ahead guaranteed.

That night the audience enthusiastically helped Xhosa gloss 'Zoltan' the Woody Shaw piece named for the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) as he chatted engagingly explaining the tunes.

Stoney Lane indicate that the full album will be out at the end of July and explain that K​(​no​)​w Them, K​(​no​)​w Us is an album that celebrates ''the rich tapestry of music and heritage of great African-American composers and improvisers, formative influences on his life and music, through a contemporary black British lens.''

Fellow Brum jazz stars saxist Soweto Kinch and pianist Reuben James are guests on the record the title punning on fun repartee involving Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong ‘'no him, no me.’' A fuller version of 'Zoltan' opens the album with Ornette's 'Blues Connotation', 'Manhattan', Monk's 'Played Twice', 'On A Misty Night', Bob Haggart's 'What's New' and 'Untitled Boogaloo' the other numbers. SG

Link to the Stoney Lane Bandcamp pages