Le saxophoniste suisse Omri Ziegele, né en 1959, voue une passion pour la musique sud-africaine. Conquis durant sa prime jeunesse par Abdulah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand), il s’installe à Londres dans les années 80. Fasciné par le Brotherhood of Breath de Chris McGregor, il le rencontre ainsi que Dudu Pukwana, Louis Moholo, Johnny Dyani, dont il reprend un thème dans ce disque... disque qui est le troisième sous le nom de Where’s Africa pour Intakt. Après un duo avec Irène Schweizer, et un trio avec la même et le batteur sud-africain Makaya Ntshoko, il en présente ici un autre, avec Yves Theiler (claviers), avec qui il a réalisé un duo (cf. Culturejazz « C’était en 2013 : 2e séance de rattrapage » 14/01/2014) et Dario Sisera (percussions, batterie). Des thèmes simples chantants et dansants sur des rythmes complexes, sans aucune facilité, composent ce disque : une Afrique imagée, mais une musique sincère – authentique?

https://www.culturejazz.fr/spip.php?article3360

The power of three is well to the four here, mostly Theiler's strident keyboard bass and synths summon the sound of a virtual quartet on an offering that stands practically as an update of some of the sophisto- groove territory covered by such as Don Cherry and Okay Temiz back in the 1970s and 1980s. There is a hard-edged attack that draws on anything from funk to African and Caribbean rhythms, thus providing a springboard to Omri Ziegele's alto sax. The reed takes an effective lead on many an occasion and is well supported by Dario Sisera's punchy drumming. Also pleasing are the much more plaintive textures fashioned by Theiler's melodica, which combines with the horn in a sprightly twist of gypsy romance. However, the unfortunate misstep is the use of vocals from the aforementioned, as they don't really enhance the arrangements in any substantial way. Given the strong nucleus created by the trio it would be interesting to hear the result of a collaboration with a much stronger singer or another player. Alternatively, the best of the nine tracks could have been cherry-picked for an EP or 12" single, like we used to buy back in the day.