Jazz artists that visited/studied in Africa

[Pim]

Two weeks ago I was in Ghana with a group of 18 of my high school students. I'm in special needs education so while there intelligence is normal most of them have autism, adhd, anxiety disorders etc. The whole experience was indescribable... I'll never forget and I think most of my students won't either. Part of the trip was staying three nights with the local people in a very small village near Tamale in the north. Three days without running water, wifi, phone etc. was a learning experience for all of us and a huge confirmation that we really have nothing to complain about in the Netherlands. We did not do any development aid that is mostly profitable for the Instagram stories of western people that are doing those kind of things for their own good feelings about themselves. Our students we're all linked to somebody of their age and the goal was just to live together and learn from each other. So we went to church together, to school together, cooked, get water from the source outside the village and played soccer together. It was magic and so much fun. What a wonderful people.

So the last night in the village they performed local dances and music as a farewell to us. I hadn't listened any jazz music since our arrival but it was there within seconds! Those rhythms: I closed my eyes and just pretended it was the Art Ensemble of Chicago I was listening to. I was sitting next to the local pastor who was the only one in the village that really spoke English and told him all their rythms reminded me so much of the jazz and particularaly freejazz I listened to. He did not know any jazz or jazz artists but smiled friendly back at me.

Of course I know many jazz artists and especially among the freejazz musicians we're heavily influenced by African music and that jazz music itself has its roots in it. But who of them have actually studied there or visited to learn? Any interesting stories about their trips?

[Milestones]

Randy Weston lived in Morocco for at least 5 years.  Talk about immersion.  He also ran a night club, so you could say that while he was bringing even more of Africa into his music, he was also bringing American jazz to Africa.  

Edited yesterday at 04:22 PM by Milestones

[clifford_thornton]

Yusef Lateef taught in Nigeria in the early 80s, resulting in two albums' worth of material.

Barney Wilen documented and made field recordings while traveling in north central Africa in 1969-70, also resulting in two albums of material.

Lester Bowie lived in Nigeria with Fela Kuti and performed in Fela's band.

Sun Ra and his band were at FESTAC 1977 (Lagos) and also performed in Egypt. Max Roach was at FESTAC too, I believe.

Archie Shepp and his band were at the Pan-African Cultural Festival in 1969, and I know that was very important for him, Burrell, Moncur, Thornton, Silva, and Murray.

[paulfromcamden]

Not really in the spirit of this thread but I noticed a copy of this unlikely LP browsing in Rays Jazz this afternoon - 'Bud Shank in Africa' from 1958.

https://electricjive.blogspot.com/2010/11/bud-shank-in-africa-1958.html

Released by Pacific Jazz in South Africa only and reissued a few years later in the UK as simply 'Bud Shank Quartet'. It doesn't appear to have ever had a US release.

[ejp626]

I guess it depends if you count Ginger Baker as a jazz-rock drummer, but he collaborated with Fela Kuti both in Africa and Europe.  https://www.openculture.com/2020/06/when-afrobeat-legend-fela-kuti-collaborated-with-cream-drummer-ginger-baker.html

 

[Milestones]

On the basis of making records with Bill Frisell and Charlie Haden, Ginger is OK in my book.  

 

[Rabshakeh]

Tony Scott!

[cliffpeterson]

rene mclean lived in Africa

[clifford_thornton]

5 hours ago, cliffpeterson said:

rene mclean lived in Africa

yes, doesn't he still spend a lot of time in SA? 

[Д.Д.]

Harris Eisenstadt studied the music of Western Africa in Gambia (I think) and you can hear it in his music.  

Also Adam Rudolph and Hartmut Geerken. Probably some other percussionists... maybe Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang too? 

Edited 15 hours ago by Д.Д.

[AndreyHenkin]

pianist John Mehegan

[jazztrain]

Hal Singer

[Pim]

Thanks all guys for replying. My goal with the thread wasn't nessicarily the dropping of names but more detailed information would be appreciated if anyone knows of course.

AI gives me this:

🇺🇸 Randy Weston

• Nationality: American

• Country in Africa: Morocco (primarily Tangier)

• Period: From 1967, approximately 5+ years resident

• Type of stay: Long-term residence

• Activities:

  • Relocated to Tangier after a U.S. State Department African tour

  • Founded the African Rhythms Club

  • Collaborated extensively with Gnawa musicians

  • Integrated North and West African rhythmic structures into jazz composition

• Significance: A central figure in Afrocentric jazz philosophy, framing jazz as part of a larger African continuum.

---

🇺🇸 Don Cherry

• Nationality: American

• Country in Africa: Morocco (including Jajouka, Rif Mountains)

• Period: Mid-1960s onward (no fixed documented residency length)

• Type of stay: Extended immersion periods

• Activities:

  • Lived and performed with local musicians (including the Master Musicians of Jajouka)

  • Studied ritual and collective musical forms

  • Developed an early “world jazz” approach integrating African and non-Western traditions

---

🇺🇸 Robert "Juice" Wilson

• Nationality: American

• Country in Africa: Morocco (Tangier)

• Period: Settled in 1936 (exact duration unclear but long-term)

• Type of stay: Emigration

• Activities:

  • Performed in Tangier’s International Zone jazz scene

  • Became part of one of the earliest North African jazz communities

---

🇺🇸 Benjamin Boone

• Nationality: American

• Country in Africa: Ghana (Accra)

• Period: Approx. 1 year

• Type of stay: Fulbright residency / academic exchange

• Activities:

  • Research in Ghanaian music traditions

  • Performances and recordings with local musicians

  • Cross-cultural jazz collaboration

---

🇺🇸 René McLean

• Nationality: American

• Country in Africa: South Africa (notably Cape Town)

• Period: Mid-1980s to late-1990s

• Type of stay: Long-term residence / educator

• Activities:

  • Consultant at Mmabana Cultural Center

  • Faculty member at University of Cape Town

  • Developed jazz education and research programs

---

🇺🇸 T. K. Blue

• Nationality: American

• Countries in Africa: Multiple (West and North Africa)

• Period: Repeated stays over several decades

• Type of stay: Extended project-based residencies

• Activities:

  • Cultural exchange leadership

  • Performances and Afro-diasporic research

  • Longstanding collaborations rooted in African traditions

---

🇩🇪/🇺🇸 Volker Goetze

• Nationality: German-American

• Country in Africa: Senegal (West Africa)

• Period: Long-running collaborations (2000s–present)

• Type of stay: Repeated extended artistic residencies

• Activities:

  • Close collaboration with griot master Ablaye Cissoko

  • Album production and intercultural composition

  • Deep engagement with Senegalese musical traditions

---

🇫🇷 Martial Solal

• Nationality: French (born in French Algeria)

• Country in Africa: Algeria (Algiers)

• Period: Youth until 1950

• Type of stay: Upbringing and early musical formation

• Activities:

  • Developed early jazz language in Algiers

  • Studied and performed before relocating to Paris

---

🇫🇷 Didier Malherbe

• Nationality: French

• Country in Africa: Morocco (Tangier)

• Period: 1964–1965

• Type of stay: Extended stay / musical immersion

• Activities:

  • Lived in an artistic community

  • Absorbed Arabic modal systems and rhythmic concepts

---

🇫🇷 Barney Wilen

• Nationality: French

• Countries in Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Niger, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso

• Period: 1969–1970

• Type of stay: Extended travel and field recording

• Activities:

  • Recorded material later released as Moshi / Moshi Too

  • Documented and incorporated local musical traditions

---

🇺🇸 Al Cohn,

🇺🇸 Billy Mitchell,

🇺🇸 Dolo Coker,

🇺🇸 Leroy Vinnegar,

🇺🇸 Frank Butler

• Country in Africa: Senegal (Dakar)

• Period: 1980

• Type of stay: Live recording session

• Activities:

  • Recorded the live album Xanadu in Africa in Dakar

  • Among the earlier documented bebop recordings on African soil

---

🇺🇸 Archie Shepp

• Nationality: American

• Countries in Africa: Primarily Algeria; also broader Pan-African engagements

• Period: Late 1960s–1970s (notably participation in the 1969 Pan-African Cultural Festival in Algiers)

• Type of stay: Extended visits / cultural-political engagement

• Activities:

  • Participated in the Pan-African Cultural Festival (Algiers, 1969)

  • Engaged with African liberation movements and musicians

  • Incorporated African political consciousness and musical elements into his work

• Significance: Key figure linking avant-garde jazz with Pan-Africanism.

---

🇺🇸 Steve Reid

• Nationality: American

• Country in Africa: Ghana (primarily), extended West African engagement

• Period: 1970s (several years living in West Africa)

• Type of stay: Long-term residence / study

• Activities:

  • Lived in Ghana studying traditional percussion

  • Immersed himself in African rhythmic systems

  • Integrated African polyrhythmic concepts into spiritual and free jazz contexts

[Pim]

Did the guys from the Art Ensemble of Chicago ever visit African countries? I vaguely remember video footage of Roscoe Mitchell playing in Morocco? Perhaps @Chuck Nessa knows best.

In Ghana I was also remembered how silly it is that we always talk about Africa as if it's one country (as some people always speak about Europe too). The cultural diversity is so immense. I've visited Morroco, Egypt, South-Africa and Ghana and all of those countries are incomparible to each other. In fact: the local pastor told me that Ghana itself consists of 75 kingdoms with their own kings and own language. 75 languages in a country only 4 times as big as the Netherlands! Every king still has power: a kind of power that runs parralel to that of the Ghanean government. Under those kings there are the village chiefs that run the village together with the village council that consists of the elders. Western people try to pretend that those societies are primitive where they are actually very complex. Those kingdoms made me think immediately of this:

I now know that's Fort Elmina on the cover and no castle. We've visited that the last day we were in Ghana. It's the oldest remaining fortress and it was the place where my Dutch ancestors shipped ten thousands of slaves in the most horrible conditions. It was very impressive to visit. Makes me also wonder if John Carter and/or Bobby Bradford visited Ghana or other African countries. Carter made more albums that reffered to West-African culture.  Perhaps again @Chuck Nessa knows best?

[clifford_thornton]

Looking up Oscar Dennard's Tangier recording, I found this:

https://africasacountry.com/2017/10/tangiers-jazzmen-and-their-phantom-producer

[adh1907]

22 hours ago, paulfromcamden said:

Not really in the spirit of this thread but I noticed a copy of this unlikely LP browsing in Rays Jazz this afternoon - 'Bud Shank in Africa' from 1958.

https://electricjive.blogspot.com/2010/11/bud-shank-in-africa-1958.html

Released by Pacific Jazz in South Africa only and reissued a few years later in the UK as simply 'Bud Shank Quartet'. It doesn't appear to have ever had a US release.

The session was included on the Mosaic box set of Bud Shank’s Pacific Jazz sessions. Never seen a copy of the original LP tho’ or the UK version.