Unissued Dudu Pukwana music

[Ken Dryden]

I am working on a writeup for some unissued music by Dudu Pukwana, including the following songs:

Hidden Spirits

Ducking Darkness

DMNT Freeze

Blessing Light

Blue Nick

Black Horse

Unfortunately, no discographical information was provided, either personnel or recording date.

Has anyone run across these recordings in their research?

[ep1str0phy]

I'd need to get my thesis hat back on, but I might be able to help. What is the instrumentation?

Off the top of my head, Blue Nick and Blessing Light were Blue Notes-era songs. Most (but not all) of the early-60's Blue Notes repertoire disappeared from the (documented) book a year or two after they expatriated to Europe. Some of this material reemerged in Pukwana's bands after the formation of Zila. If it's an iteration of the latter, there's no telling what the exact personnel/date is--but I could make an educated guess if you can figure out the instrumentation. There are some non-Blue Notes Pukwana band players (i.e., Lucky Ranku, Ernest Mothle) that have extremely distinctive sounds; if you can identify one of those guys (via an A/B comparison with a previously released late Brotherhood or Pukwana recording), you'll at least be on the right track.

...then again, if this is something like the Stuckey organ trio, or some unreleased iteration of Spear--i.e., something that only a couple of collectors have heard--you're SOL. Best then to contact Hazel Miller or maybe Barbara Pukwana or even Moholo (though if this recording is in your hands already, you've likely already been down those avenues).