“I’ve always known that percussionists are in very many ways the truth-tellers of this music,” says UK saxophonist Xhosa Cole, talking to Francis Gooding during his interview for The Wire 465. “Although they don’t often get a platform to verbalise or vocalise their concepts, or their understanding of their instruments, their cultures, heritage, their relationship to improvisation, or to sound production, stuff like this. It’s always saxophonists and pianists that seem to get the talky-talky bit. So I very much wanted to connect with these guys.”

Cole's latest album Ibeji features collaborations from percussionists Adriano Adewale, Lekan Babalola, Jason Brown, Corey Mwamba, Mark Sanders, Ian Parmel, and his brother Azizi Cole, as well as segments of conversation between Cole and his percussive partners. The album finds the musicians riffing on ideas of duality and double-consciousness in their playing and during their discussions.

Today Cole premieres “Andy's Shuffle”, a duet with New York drummer Jason Brown celebrating the legacy of the late Jamaican born Birmingham based saxophonist Andy Hamilton MBE.

Read Francis Gooding's interview with Xhosa Cole in The Wire 465. Wire subscribers can also read the magazine online via the digital archive.

Ibeji is released 11 November via Stoney Lane.