Sibusile Xaba - Unlearning/Open Letter to Adoniah

The Guardian 80

(Mushroom Hour Half Hour)

For those of us unfamiliar with the South African genre malombo, the music made by guitarist and singer Sibusile Xaba sounds like a wonderfully chaotic blend of bossa nova, flamenco and prog folk; sung soulfully in Zulu over a tangle of jazzy chords on a nylon-strung guitar. Xaba was mentored by two celebrated South African musicians, Philip Tabane and Madala Kunene, but his music is far more interesting. This album is divided into two halves: An Open Letter to Adoniah is the more obviously “African” project, where Xaba is backed by the hand drums and androgynous-sounding harmonies of Thabang Tabane. The second disc, Unlearning, contains the real sonic surprises. Alongside Ariel Zamonsky’s slithering double bass and Bonolo Nkoane’s atmospheric brushed drums, Xaba invents a kind of weightless, free-floating global jazz that’s pitched somewhere between John Martyn’s Solid Air, Brazilian Tropicalia and the Violent Femmes. An astonishing debut from a unique talent.