Philip Clouts is the UK-resident Cape Town pianist who helped found the African-infused world-jazz group Zubop, and is currently touring with a new quartet featuring acclaimed young Trinity Laban saxophonist Samuel Eagles. Eagles gets into the spirit of both Clouts’ cultural openness and feel for dance grooves with his snaking, whooping soprano sax solo on the breezy Lila (a fusion of North African Sufi music and township jive), and his deftly swerving post-bop inventiveness illuminates the initially languid Dreamy Driving, much fuelled by the energies of bass guitarist Alex Keen and drummer Dave Ingamells. The rhythm section play with precise ebullience under Clouts’ electric keys on the jaunty Walking in Starlight, and the leader’s affection for a gospel-powered earthiness emerges on the coolly strutting Meandering and in the relaxed funkiness of his piano solo. The township bounce of Umoya’s title track makes it a standout of a set that compensates for the slightness of some of its themes with the unpretentiously light-stepping delivery that has made this group a popular live-show draw.
