Cape Town based Asher Gamedze has shared new lead single Find Each Other – a polyrhythmic jazz reflection recorded with new 10-piece ensemble The Black Lungs – and is the first track from forthcoming album Constitution out 30th August on International Anthem.

The drummer and composer is a cultural worker in South Africa and devotes his life to music, education and history.

The album opener and lead single features NYC poet and scholar Fred Moten setting out The Black Lung’s ‘principles’ of jazz.

“We some bodies, things with moments

We whisper into the microphone as if it were an open secret

That brush is faster than beat

That scrape is the incessant, excessive, accelerant generalisation of strike

We cause, and gather, and refuse, and caress

And often we are permitted to return to a meadow

Often we are invited to dance”

The mission statement announces the arrival of Asher Gamedze & The Black Lungs and was recorded in one day at Cape Town’s Sound and Motion Studios. Constitution is Gamedze’s follow-up to Turbulence and Pulse, which was co-released in 2023 by International Anthem and the Johannesburg-based label Mushroom Hour Half Hour. Both stables are home to global leading jazz artists, have featured frequently on World Treasures Music, and are modern day innovators of the genre and its hybrids.

The Black Lungs are: Tumi Pheko on cornet, Garth Erasmus on alto saxophone, Jed Petersen on tenor saxophone, Ru Slayen on percussion, Athi Ngcaba on trombone, Tina Mene on vocals, Fred Moten provides words, Nobuhle Ashanti on piano, Sean Sanby on bass, and Asher Gamedze on drums.

Tour dates 2024:

July 25  –  Cape Town, South Africa @ The Commons

July 26 – Cape Town, South Africa @  196 Victoria

August 28  – Brussels, Belgium @  Feeërieën

August 30 – Willisau, Switzerland @ Jazz Festival Willisau

September 1 – St. Gallen, Switzerland @ Amboss & Steigbügel

October 26  – Gdansk, Poland @ Jazz Jantar

October 26  – Ludwigshafen, Germany @ Enjoy Jazz Festival

November 8  – Utrecht, Netherlands @ Le Guess Who