Sean Bergin and M.O.B.

Recorded live at the Bimhuis, Amsterdam. The debut album of M.O.B. - "My Own Band" - the project that would become the main vehicle for this South African giant in exile. Eight tracks, almost an hour of music, with titles that tell you everything you need to know: "Purtles," "Ice Cream Man," "Tea and Scones," "Monkey Woman," "Beach Balls," "Kids-Trainride."

Sean Bergin (1948-2012) left Durban for Amsterdam in 1976, escaping apartheid, carrying South African jazz in his blood. Half Irish, half South African, he performed illegally with black musicians back home before the journey north. In Amsterdam he became a central figure - leading M.O.B., co-founding Trio San Francisco with Tobias Delius and Daniele D'Agaro, working with Mal Waldron, Louis Moholo, Ernst Reijseger, Miriam Makeba. Winner of the VPRO/Boy Edgar Award in 2000.

The Volkskrant called him "a born melodic player - gospel, Celtic song and the uproar of Charles Mingus are never far removed." That's exactly what you get here. The seventeen-minute "Kids-Trainride" alone is worth the price of admission - a journey through everything Bergin loved and knew. South African township jazz, bar songs, folk music, free improvisation - all filtered through an imagination that never lost its sense of wonder. Kids' mysteries indeed. Essential document of the Amsterdam scene at its peak.