Asher Gamedze

Asher Gamedze is a cultural worker based in Cape Town, South Africa, involved in music, education and history. As an independent musician he works as a drummer, composer and bandleader. A versatile drummer with an open sound and sensibility, Gamedze plays across and between multiple traditions of music including free improvisation, soul music, rock ‘n roll, and many locally situated traditions from Southern Africa. He has performed extensively in South Africa and other parts of the African continent including Egypt, Lesotho and Malawi. Gamedze has been on multiple European tours and has also played in the USA, particularly in Chicago where he has a big community. Gamedze’s debut record as a bandleader, ‘Dialectic Soul’, was released to critical acclaim in 2020. The record received a rating of 8.0 from Pitchfork, was ranked in the New York Times’ Top Ten Jazz Albums of the Year and won ‘Best Traditional Jazz Album’ at the Mzantsi Jazz Awards. His second release, ‘Out Side Work’, consisting of two improvised duets with saxophone players Alan Bishop and Xristian Espinoza, came out in April 2022. He toured that record with reedman Xristian Espinoza in Europe in September 2022 and, in November 2022, toured ‘Dialectic Soul’, playing venues and festivals such as Jazzfest Berlin, Le Guess Who? and Flagey. He has recently also played on the following albums: Luh’ra’s ‘Nice’ (2022), Xhanti Nokwali’s ‘Umthombo’ (2022), On Our Own Clock’s ‘On Our Own Clock’ (2021), Manny Walters’ ‘Dark Halo’ (2019) and ‘Live at Milestone’ (2021), and Angel Bat Dawid and Tha Brothahood’s ‘Live!’ (2020) amongst many others. He has performed live with Ben LaMar Gay, Nduduzo Makhathini, Salim Washington, Alabaster DePlume, and many others.

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