Tenderlonious - Africa / Brass Live

Sixty-four years after John Coltrane recorded the groundbreaking Africa/Brass for Impulse!, Tenderlonious honours the original recording while pushing it forward with a Coltrane-like fervour of his own. Africa/Brass Live was recorded at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival in October 2025, as part of Pique-nique's Take Two series. Each Take Two event begins with an uninterrupted, high-fidelity playback of a seminal album, heard as it was originally intended, followed by a live reinterpretation with full artistic freedom. It's an experiment into what happens when serious musicians immerse themselves in a work long enough to discover their own path through it.

For this performance, Tenderlonious assembled a quartet of trusted collaborators. Tim Carnegie, his longtime Ruby Rushton drummer, flew in from London. Horatio Luna on bass and On-Ly on piano completed the group, two Melbourne musicians Tenderlonious describes as "seriously underrated." The melodies, he said, would be the foundation. After that, the search would begin. And the search was fierce! That's what you're hearing on this record. One beautiful note, Tenderlonious will tell you, means more than a thousand. Coltrane knew it. And on a Monday night in Melbourne, they proved it.