the Assembly, Cape Town

Oct 2008

With: Anthony Joseph (voice); Andrew John (bass); Colin Webster (sax, flute); Adrian Owusu (guitars); Paul Brett, Paul Zimmerman and Craig Tamlin (percussions)

Anthony Joseph is one of the leading writers of his generation. Born in Trinidad, his experimental poetry, fiction, music and spoken word performances fuse Calypso rhythms with a postmodern eye, creating what he calls 'liquid textology'. Joseph is the author of two poetry collections, Desafinado and Teragaton, a novel African Origins of UFOs, in addition to releases featuring his Jazz septet The Spasm Band. The band's debut album Leggo de Lion has echoes of dub poets, Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Sun Ra cosmic visions, but the Spasm Band definitely has a sound of its own. It was this sound the band took to Europe and North Africa during much of 2007, touring in support of the album, with appearances at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Jazz au Chellah in Rabat and the Blue Note Jazz Festival in Paris. Joseph's new collection of poetry Bird Head Son is due in 2008 followed by a new Spasm Band album with the same title.