Effective period / Period of releases: 1984

Members: Ben Mandelson, Jane Shorter, Nigel Watson (3), Opata Azu

An early '80s London-based African-style band.

"They were one of the bands that you get a lot now, a mixture of several different styles and players, with some local English musicians (...) Basically, pretty much a Ghanaian style band with a lot of Sierra Leonean input. The classic line-up had Jane Shorter playing tenor sax, and Sofi Hellborg playing alto — Jane and Sofi ended up being with Mory Kanté in Paris and being his horn section — and Fish Krish, who' still around doing lots of world music things, was playing trombone with us, so that was our horn section. And Nigel Watson (3) and Colin Bass later (to become Houzam and Sabah Habas Mustapha respectively). In fact, a lot of the 3 Mustaphas 3 had their African education in Jazira, including the horn section, percussion, bass and drums." -- Ben Mandelson