The Unity Band unifies jazz traditions on Breaking Bread

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And this encapsulated energy, this concentrated brilliance moulded in just a moment in time (nine days of writing and recording), is heard throughout the jazz ensemble’s expansive album Breaking Bread. It’s the eight-piece’s second offering to date, after the release of Fabric in 2019. Whereas that album served as a canvas for the musicians to put their abilities to the test, Breaking Bread is an affirmation that this particular class of music makers could be on their way to setting a higher bar for all South African jazzists to follow – simply because of the amount of information that is compressed on its 11 tracks.

South Africa already boasts a disruptive new school of jazz practitioners, with names like Bokani Dyer, Shane Cooper, Mandla Mlangeni, Thandi Ntuli, Tshepo Tsotetsi and Linda Sikhakhane, among many, many others, entering awe-stricken musical conversations at a constant rate. But The Unity Band’s collective pool of musical knowledge and influences may just be too much for most other groups to contend with.

Drawing from their own musical cultures and the power of the internet to inform different ways of approaching composition and arrangement, the members of The Unity Band provide a real sense of multiplicity on Breaking Bread. In most other cases, this could lead to confusion and an overreliance on hauntology than a portrayal of the current geist. Yet The Unity Band has done well not to offer mere odes but a carefully balanced selection of influences stemming from standards and more modern takes on the art form.

‘Pink Sunset’ will entice fans of fusion and the razor-sharp modulation of Scandinavian jazz, while those who enjoy closer-to-home sounds will quickly fall into the Afrobeat groove on ‘Chukudo’, a song that also features rousing vocal interplay between lead singer Thandeka Dladla and the low declarations of a male choir.

Breaking Bread, presumably curated by bandleader Lumanyano ‘Unity’ Mzi (drums), also pays homage to ‘80s jazz-funk courtesy of Stephen de Souza wherever the musician employs the electric bass (vs. upright bass) – particularly on ‘Millerized’, which can be easily mistaken for a composition coming straight out of the vault of the great American bassist. Marcus Miller became the big name he is today while working with Miles Davis, whose insistence on aggressive and heartfelt performances from the musicians he employed is a central MO on Breaking Bread.

Yet there’s also the more measured, academic side on this album, on songs like ‘Walk This Road Alone’ where guitarist Dylan Fine evokes the sedate genius of greats like Allan Holdsworth and Pat Metheny, while exploring the near endless possibilities of the fretboard. Fine then transforms his tone towards the rock-fusion idiom on ‘Wakhile’, a track on which Indian solkattu phrasing is cleverly inserted to provide rhythmic richness and worldly appeal.

Artist: The Unity Band
Album: Breaking Bread
Label: Next Music
Year: 2023