Album Review: Ubunye – Tell Me The Truth Or Don’t Tell Me Anything (33 Records)

Xolani Mbatha, (vocals, percussion); Nokuthula Zondi (vocals); David Evans (piano); Nik Svarc (guitar); Sam Dutton-Taylor (bass); Steve Hanley (drums); Kenny Higgins (bass); Idris Rahman (tenor sax); Robin Hopcroft (trumpet, trombone); Emma Johnson (tenor sax); Aaron Wood (Trumpet); Maja Bugge (cello); Michelle Scally Clarke (spoken word).

This is another fine slab of Afro/Jazz/Soul/Funk from the Deep South (Leeds) and there are definitely worse ways to pass 50 minutes, (have you ever watched Michael McIntyre?). This is mainly the same line-up that played at the Cobalt Studios in Newcastle a few years back on the night that MP Chi Onwurah presented them with the All Party Parliamentary Group for Jazz Award for Ensemble of the Year for 2023. They played a storming set in support of their self-titled debut and now they’re back with their second album.

It’s a multi layered sound with the two lead singers presenting very different voices in Mbatha’s solid baritone and Zondi’s lighter tones; behind them the rhythm section is ferocious and carving out their own space in between are Evans and Svarc. Additional muscle is provided by horns and saxes on selected tracks whilst Clarke’s spoken words add a subtlety made more powerful by a straight determined reading of her lines, a quiet storm. Finally, Maja Bugge’s cello is the prominent instrumental voice on the closing Hymn, matched by the passion in the voices.

Highpoints include the opener, Hey Now, which shape shifts between various grooves and houses some fine scything guitar from Svarc, the propulsive forward drive of On the Road whereon powerful drumming backs Mbatha’s deep, bellowing voice which is forced onwards by Rahman’s sax and Hopcraft’s trumpet, both of which are carved apart by Svarc’s guitar. Let Me Stay Here is dominated by Mbatha’s gospel tones until her voice is wrapped in a security blanket of the whole band in full force. You have to keep ears open for hidden diamonds in amongst the, often, hyper-activity; Evans’ complex, intense piano solo on Another Moment being one such treasure but it’s low down in the mix behind a busy front line and you have to dig for it. River Flow blisters the paint off the doors at first and then settles into a gentle Caribbean swing that is matched by the mellowness of Flowers, a romantic lament.

This is another very good album that may, as with their previous release provoke the ‘is it jazz? discussions but it works on its own merits. The days when jazz was neither a borrower from, nor a lender to, other jazz adjacent genres has long gone and those with open ears to hear will enjoy this album. It might even sneak into the top 10 for the year. (More on that next month). Dave Sayer