Jamz Supernova Maps Out A Day-To-Night Journey On ‘Dance Around The World’

The BBC Radio 6 Music DJ’s debut compilation for Mr Bongo gathers 16 tracks from Colombia to Mozambique and beyond.

Jamz Supernova has released ‘Dance Around The World’, her first compilation for independent label Mr Bongo, a 16-track collection that distils years of travelling, DJing and community-building into one deeply personal listen.

For more than a decade, Jamz has pointed audiences towards music beyond the mainstream through her BBC Radio 6 Music show, her Future Bounce label and DJ sets around the world. This compilation grows out of her ‘Dance Around The World’ show and Bandcamp community, and it’s structured as a single trip from sunrise to the small hours. The Day side moves through live instrumentation, storytelling and sunlit grooves, before Night tips into club rhythms and dancefloor experimentation. “When you travel, you get to experience both the day side of somewhere and the night side, and the music and the feeling can change so much between the two,” she explains.

The tracklist draws from contemporary and archival sounds alike, featuring Groundsound, SIMANGAVOLE & SOA RAVELO, Esa Williams, Oruã, Lenna Bahule, Célia Wa, 15 15, Catu Diosis & Neana, Jus Now, Evehive & Clementaum and Mokotron. Jamz appears herself on ‘Tan Toddy’ alongside Sam Interface and Lateena. Two previously released cuts offer contrasting views of Colombia: Verito Asprilla’s reggaeton-tinged ‘Quiero Ser Buena’, from an artist Jamz found through the country’s Pacific coast music scene, and Brenda x Diva Cruz’s club-ready ‘Sin Africa’, which tackles African identity, colonial history and the Afro-Colombian experience, and which Jamz helped bring together in an A&R capacity.

That political thread runs through the whole project. In her liner notes, Jamz points out that every region featured has used music as a form of resistance in response to colonialism, but says she’s equally interested in “how music moves us forward.” The aim is to let places be heard in all their complexity, rather than flattening them into familiar musical shorthand.

To mark the release, Jamz hosts a full listening session at Shai Space in Peckham this Sunday 18th October, featuring a conversation about the project, a short acoustic set from contributing artist Lenna Bahule and a signing. She then brings the compilation to The Jazz Cafe on Friday 30th October, joined by Diva Cruz, Esa Williams and Samtheman.