To catch the loose, casual grace of South African township jazz and clothe it in formal orchestrations seems an impossible job, but English saxophonist-composer Julian Argüelles and the Frankfurt Radio Big Band make it sound easy. Not that there’s much formality about these nine arrangements of tunes by apartheid exiles of the 1960s. As a founder-member of the gloriously disorderly Loose Tubes, Argüelles knows how to keep things free. In any case, this music is so indestructibly tuneful that it almost plays itself. Just listen to Miriam Makeba’s Retreat Song or Dudu Pukwana’s Diamond Express for proof.
