Claude Cozens Trio feat. Ghazi Al-Mulaifi and Tonatiut Zardoìn

The multi-faceted jazz-fusion Claude Cozens Trio from Cape Town performs in the UAE for the first time. The trio (Cozens on drums, Kyle Shepherd on piano and keyboards, Benjamin Jephta on acoustic and electric bass) is joined by new friends from the UAE, Ghazi Al-Mulaifi (guitar) and Tonatiut Zardon (trumpet).

A multi-instrumentalist with roots in improvised music, Cozens’ drumming owes much to the rhythms of the goema, a type of hand drum characteristically used in South Africa’s Cape jazz scene — “Cozens uses the historic language of Cape jazz to have some very fresh conversations” as one commentator put it.

This is something of a reunion; the trio actually split up ten years ago to working on different projects. The members have joined forces in other formats with other artists and projects over the years but have not come together as a trio in over a decade. It’s also a reunion with NYUAD itself, where Cozens has in the past had Adjunct Faculty status and where Ghazi Al-Mulaifi is himself a Visiting Assistant Professor.

The gig is sold out, but as ever there may be returns …