Ola Onabulé wins best International Album/Artist.

Ola Onabulé wins best International Album/Artist.

We are pleased to announce that It’s Never Over, the album by Ola Onabulé with the Hazelrigg Brothers and Thomas Käfel, has won Best International Jazz Album/Artist at the 10th South Africa Jazz Awards. The ceremony took place on 15 August 2026 at the South African State Theatre in Pretoria.

Formerly known as the Mzantsi Jazz Awards, the South Africa Jazz Awards recognise jazz from South Africa, the wider African continent and beyond. Among this year’s other winners were vocalist Tutu Puoane, named Best Female Jazz Artist, pianist Andile Yenana, named Best Jazz Artist, and Mdu Mtshali, whose Okae Molao received Best Contemporary Jazz Album. We are proud to see It’s Never Over recognised in that company.

We recorded the album live at the Sendesaal in Bremen, the former Radio Bremen studio built in 1952, and a room that has been something of a musical home for Ola Onabulé since 2014. The quartet worked without rehearsals, in a single acoustic space, unamplified and without headphones. Each track is one uninterrupted take, with no overdubs or editing. Jos Boerland engineered the sessions, drawing on classical recording practice and capturing the performances natively in DXD and Dolby Atmos. The programme consists of seven Onabulé originals, spanning his catalogue from Beyond Definition (1997) to It’s The Peace That Deafens (2015), together with Prince’s “Condition of the Heart,” which the Hazelrigg Brothers brought to the project.

Onabulé, the British-Nigerian vocalist and songwriter, has worked extensively with the WDR, SWR, HR and Danish Radio Big Bands. The award follows his recognition as Rising Star Male Vocalist in the 2025 DownBeat Critics Poll, and in September he performed at the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Festival in Johannesburg. The Philadelphia-based brothers George Hazelrigg (piano) and Geoff Hazelrigg (bass) are known for their chamber-jazz readings of contemporary repertoire, and as the co-founders of the audio equipment manufacturer Hazelrigg Industries. Austrian drummer Thomas Käfel, whose control of dynamics shapes much of the album’s character, completes the quartet.

Writing about the sessions, Onabulé called the Sendesaal “undoubtedly, the perfect venue for this recording,” and described the result as “a recording which is unlike any other I have ever been involved with.”

This recognition matters to us because of how the album was made. We believe that how music is captured shapes how it is heard, and It’s Never Over was made entirely on those terms: four musicians in one room, with nothing added afterwards. That a jury in South Africa has responded to the record in this way tells us that the approach reaches listeners well beyond the audiophile community, and we are grateful to the South Africa Jazz Awards for the honour.

It’s Never Over is available on CD, DSD download, Dolby Atmos and all major streaming platforms.