Jump to content

"South African Jazz"


ep1str0phy

Recommended Posts

Pratt, right (as opposed to the usual drummer of that group, Chuck Flores). Please check again, I was pretty sure he was on a cut or two! If not my memory is playing bad tricks with me...

Too bad I can't locate my own copy (but the original CD is my dad's - he live in SA in the late 60s, but had no interest in jazz back then, or not that much, as far as I know).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 276
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Alright, I kicked my lazy ass and did a tiny bit of googling: Jürgen Schadeberg (born 1931) is the photographer I was referring to. Here's a nice page with a few photos:

http://galerie-herrmann.com/arts/schadeberg/index_eng.htm

There's one jazz related photo there, titled "The Three Jazzolomos":

05_gr.jpg

And one more, Dolly Rathebe at the opening of that exhibition, in front of her portrait:

07.jpg

And here's his homepage, with contact detail:

http://www.jurgenschadeberg.com/

It has many of his photographs, including a page of beautiful jazz photos, check it out! He might indeed be interesting to talk to on this subject!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just got a few releases that may appeal to the folks here:

Hugh Masekela's Union of South Africa (w/Jonas Gwangwa)--a poppy, funk-jazz affair with a few well-placed fireworks. It's fun listening to these more rockish affairs and hearing the stylistic congruities (close harmonies, diatonic melodies, aggressive, expressive soloing) with the other strains of SA music. I like this one.

Also up to bat are Zim Ngqawana's Vadzimu and (finally tracking it down...) Mike Osborne's Border Crossing/Marcel's Muse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just got a few releases that may appeal to the folks here:

Hugh Masekela's Union of South Africa (w/Jonas Gwangwa)--a poppy, funk-jazz affair with a few well-placed fireworks. It's fun listening to these more rockish affairs and hearing the stylistic congruities (close harmonies, diatonic melodies, aggressive, expressive soloing) with the other strains of SA music. I like this one.

Also up to bat are Zim Ngqawana's Vadzimu and (finally tracking it down...) Mike Osborne's Border Crossing/Marcel's Muse.

Epistrophy .. what is the title of your thesis, and where are you doing it? Thanks .. Garth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To cool this down a bit, the thesis work at this point is prospective. I recently completed an Ayler/AACM thesis at Berkeley that almost--but due to several unfortunate factors--included a third section on the Europe/Blue Notes axis, but it's more foundational than anything else. If my scholarly work indeed gets underway, then I'll have something more concrete in a month or two...

Here's hoping, as there aren't too many places that would accomodate research of the focus I'm aiming toward (i.e., centered on the improvisational factor in SA jazz as a coequal to sociological/historical elements). We'll see (thanks for the interest, though)...

Edited by ep1str0phy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

To cool this down a bit, the thesis work at this point is prospective. I recently completed an Ayler/AACM thesis at Berkeley that almost--but due to several unfortunate factors--included a third section on the Europe/Blue Notes axis, but it's more foundational than anything else. If my scholarly work indeed gets underway, then I'll have something more concrete in a month or two...

Here's hoping, as there aren't too many places that would accomodate research of the focus I'm aiming toward (i.e., centered on the improvisational factor in SA jazz as a coequal to sociological/historical elements). We'll see (thanks for the interest, though)...

Well, having suffered through the thesis topic issue myself many years ago (I eventually wrote about the social impact of the movies in America), if I can provide any information about South Africa in the period before 1958 (when I left) don't hesitate to ask ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, that's a great pic of Kippie, UBU!

I was in Jo'burg 1972-1976, and I played with a lot of the guys there, including Kippie. Even with the heavy dude goverment of the day, there was a very healthy jazz scene in S.A. then, and we just played with anyone of any color. I didn't give a **** what anyone thought! Nothing actually happened, apart from an occasional comment from the Suid Afrikaanse Polisie. We were also swimming in dagga, which carried a 5 year rap, but they never bothered us about that either. :cool: Used to get it from Maseru, Lesotho when I was down there - I filled in for a friend there in the band at the Holiday Inn.

Thanks for starting the thread. Will check the Kippie thread, now, as I posted a few memories about S.A. jazz on this board awhile back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey, thanks for showing up! I have tremendous respect (and envy) for those among us who managed to get in with Kippie somehow. I'd like to hear more of your recollections... (especially as you were there right to the year of the Soweto student strikes--things got worse, no?)

Edited by ep1str0phy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know whether this has been covered elsewhere on the Board but the first two recordings by Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath have just been reissued on the Fled'gling Label. Apparently they have been remastered and sound terrific. Although the recordings have been available 'officially' and 'unoffically' for some time now it will be great to hear this wonderful, joyful music in all its glory!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was just listening to Brotherhood today--beautiful, beautiful stuff. It's one of those albums that my mind refuses to tire to. (It could act as a cross section of this camp of musicians--a mbaqanga tune, a blowout piece in free time, a knotty post-bop piece, a melee in triple meter, a breakneck march--everything's here, everyone is featured in some capacity.)

And I finally got my hands on the Harry Miller box (it's in the mail). I'm excited, to say the least.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still wasn't able to locate that Miller box :(

Garth, I finally was able to check the jazz & jive disc ("Drum - South African Jazz & Jive 1954-60", Line Records, MSCD 9.01092 O, in case anyone wants the exact info), and Jimmy Pratt is the leader (with Lemmy Special & Miriam Makeba) of "Rockin' in Rhythm" (#12).

The back of the booklet features a photo of Pratt's at a 1958 session with Kippie and General Duze (guitar) and unknown musicians.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was just listening to Brotherhood today--beautiful, beautiful stuff. It's one of those albums that my mind refuses to tire to. (It could act as a cross section of this camp of musicians--a mbaqanga tune, a blowout piece in free time, a knotty post-bop piece, a melee in triple meter, a breakneck march--everything's here, everyone is featured in some capacity.)

And I finally got my hands on the Harry Miller box (it's in the mail). I'm excited, to say the least.

It's great...Han playing Kwela...Breuker and Watts going at it full tilt...Radu playing notes(!)...Keith Tippett and Louis Moholo tearing it up on 'Family Affair'...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know whether this has been covered elsewhere on the Board but the first two recordings by Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath have just been reissued on the Fled'gling Label. Apparently they have been remastered and sound terrific. Although the recordings have been available 'officially' and 'unoffically' for some time now it will be great to hear this wonderful, joyful music in all its glory!

Head Man,

Let me say thank you, thank you, thank you for your willingness to "share" your information on this! I just finished listening to both Brotherhood of Breath albums, and they are GREAT! I'm really digging Dudu's playing on these!

You really are the top demon!

Cheers,

Shane

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Message to folks--Downtown Music Gallery has supposedly "last copies" of the Harry Miller box, sans slipcase, on sale for the fairly high price of $65. Mine arrived in the mail, and it's well worth it (as an indulgence, yes, but I'm loving every minute of it).

Edited by ep1str0phy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Listening to Down South now, and--being a tremendous Moholo fan, used to hearing him as the drummer in these contexts--Bennink does a terrific job. I think it's just the right measure of Dutch unruliness to transform an already creative mbaqanga groove into something truly off-the-wall. Bennink isn't just a drummer--he's a true percussionist (and it's a testament to the power of the SAs that the "international community" on these Miller recordings sounds so whole, so organic).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...