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For many, Winston “Mankunku” Ngozi’s 1968 album Yakhal’ Inkomo is the most influential Jazz album in South Africa’s Jazz scene, the equivalent in influence for South Africa’s Jazz scene that John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme had for America. It is therefore somewhat shocking that an album so influential is almost unknown outside of ...
Dec 28, 2020 · A special mention to Sean Sanby, Shane Cooper, The SN Project, Mandla Mlangeni, Banda Banda and The Crocodiles, Zawadi Yamungu, Sibusiso Mashiloane, and dumama+kechou, who all gave us amazing music this year. Below is a list, not comprehensive by any standards, of South African jazz albums which held space while 2020 did a number on us.
- Don Laka. Full name: Donald Mahwetša Laka. Date of birth: 15th December 1958. Age: 63 years (as of 2022) Place of birth: Mamelodi, Pretoria. With multiple hitmaking albums, Don Laka is the owner of Bokone Music and co-founder of Kalawa Jazzmee.
- Abdullah Ibrahim. Full name: Abdullah Ibrahim. Date of birth: 9th October 1934. Age: 88 years (as of 2022) Place of birth: Cape Town. Abdullah Ibrahim is a South African pianist, flutist, soprano saxophonist, and composer known for Ishmael, The Wedding, Mannenberg, The Mountain, Damara Blue, and Whoza Mtwana.
- Moses Khumalo. Full name: Moses Khumalo. Date of birth: 30th January 1979. Date of death: 4th September 2006. Age at death: 27 years. Place of birth: Soweto. Moses Khumalo was only 27 years old when he passed away.
- Hugh Masekela. Full name: Hugh Ramapolo Masekela. Date of birth: 4th April 1939. Date of death: 23rd January 2018. Age at death: 78 years. Place of birth: Emalahleni Local Municipality.
- Mankunku “Dedication (To Daddy Trane and Brother Shorter),” 1968
- Heshoo Beshoo Group “Emakhaya,” 1971
- Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath “The Bride,” 1971
- Batsumi “Mamshanyana,” 1974
- Sathima Bea Benjamin “Africa,” 1976
- Okay Temiz/Johnny Dyani “Elhamdulillah Marimba|Marimba (Mother of Music),” 1976
- Black Disco “Night Express,” 1976
- Iréne Schweizer/Louis Moholo-Moholo “Free Mandela!,” 1987
- Tete Mbambisa “Black Heroes,” 2012
- Shabaka and The Ancestors “Mzwandile,” 2016
Tenor saxophonist Winston “Mankunku” Ngozi recorded Yakhal’ Inkomoin 1968 when he was 24. The title is the name for the bellow of a bull as it is about to be slaughtered—painfully fitting, since Mankunku was cheated out of virtually all of the proceeds of what turned out to be a hit record. As the title of the track suggests, Mankunku was heavily i...
The cover of the Heshoo Beshoo Group’s 1971 LP Armitage Road depicts the performers crossing the road in a run-down township. It’s a visual nod to Abbey Road, and a suggestion perhaps that, while the apartheid government could grind its people down, it couldn’t disconnect them completely from the rest of the world. The Heshoo Beshoo Group doesn’t s...
Pianist and composer Chris McGregor was white, but his love of jazz led him to perform in numerous integrated bands—and eventually pushed him into exile along with many of those black performers. He led important bands beginning in the 1960s, including the Castle Lager Big Band and the hugely important Blue Notes. The Brotherhood of Breath started ...
With a Matsuli Records release of an exceedingly rare LP, Soweto-based band Batsumi was strongly influenced by anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko and his message of self-respect and empowerment. Johnny Mothopeng, the guitarist and leader of Batsumi, was the son of the imprisoned president of the Pan-Africanist Congress, and political and spiritual ...
Another Matsuli release, this one featuring one of the great, underappreciated figures of South African music. Sathima Bea Benjamin, a mixed-race singer, recorded the first jazz LP in South African history in 1965, but it was never released. She married renowned South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim the same year, and spent much of the rest of her...
One of the most famous South African expatriates, bassist Johnny Dyani performed with The Blue Notes, a South African band that toured Europe to great acclaim. He also performed with Don Cherry. “He was fiercely critical of the apartheid government,” Matt Temple says, “and infused his music and compositions with that angry fire.” This track is from...
The album Night Express—reissued, again, by Matsuli—was originally released in 1976 by a group of performers from Johannesburg. Organist Ismaili “Pops” Muhammad was influenced by black South African jazz, but also by the smooth soul sounds coming out of Philadelphia. The song “Night Express” slides along on Peter Morake’s funky, fluid bassline and ...
Cape Town drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo emigrated from South Africa in 1964, and spent the remainder of his career in London. He was a mainstay of many of the important ex-pat South African bands, including the Blue Notes, the Brotherhood of Breath, and the Dedication Orchestra. “Free Mandela!” is from a 1987 session with Swiss jazz pianist Iréne Sch...
Pianist Tete Mbambisa was a key figure in South African jazz as a performer and composer. He worked with tenor saxophonist Mankunku, and was responsible for much of the composing and arranging on the Soul Jazzmen’s Inhlupeko. Mbambisa had a big hit of his own in 1976 with the big band recording “Black Heroes.” On the 2012 album Black Heroes,he repr...
Barbados born, London-based tenor saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings recorded Wisdom of Eldersin Johannesburg with a group of South African musicians, including Siyabonga Mthembu on vocals and Mandla Mlangeni on trumpet. “Mzwandile” picks up the vibe of South African spiritual jazz, with an easy groove that spaces out into fusion Sun Ra-style space expl...
Masekela died at 78 in January 2018. Ibrahim is still active at 83 years old. Jazz-rock fusion or, often, simply “fusion” emerged in the late 60s as the child of many mothers. Characterized by electric instruments and rock rhythms, it could be loud and fast, but just as likely, could be melodic or lyrical or funky.
Apr 4, 2008 · Essential South African Jazz: The Jo’burg Sessions is an eclectic collection of African jazz standards, lovingly restored by some of the present masters in the genre. It features some of the most definitive and influential African jazz songs ever to have been composed – plus some newer and lesser-known gems.
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Mar 19, 2019 · That night was February 2 1959. The setting was the Wits Great Hall in Johannesburg. And the history being made was the first all-Black South African musical. King Kong, the jazz-influenced ...
