Last night at the Bird's Eye in Basel, a band led by drummer Sphelelo Muzibuko with Lukas Thoeni (trumpet), Andreas Tschopp (trombone), Kenny Niggli (piano), and Vimbs Mavimbs (bass) played many catchy tunes with melodies with a wonderful immediacy. Even though I had never heard them before, I could immediately sing along with them. Yet they never seemed predictable. As I formulated it when talking to the musicians after the concert, the band's compositions sounded inevitable and surprising at once. On several of the tunes, when Muzibuko and Niggli started singing along to the brass, I was singing along too, as if I had known these moving melodies my whole life. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 28 August 2026)