"South African Jazz"

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I've been thinking about SA Jazz in the context of African music more generally.

I'm not familiar with every type of music from Africa, but I do know a bit about many. One generalisation I feel fairly sure about is that, whether in West Africa, Central Africa or Southern Africa, music is widely regarded, by both audiences and musicians, as a way of carrying on politics.

An interesting aspect of the repressive regimes of Ian Smith in (then) Rhodesia and the apartheid regime in SA was that despite the repression, music that was highly critical of those regimes was in fact permitted. Indeed, Chimurenga musicians like Thomas Mapfumo were a critical part of marshalling support on behalf of Robert Mugabe against the Smith regime. And Lucky Dube, to mention one SA Reggae singer whose work I know particularly well, recorded anti-Apartheid songs for years before that regime crumbled. Subsequently, his work shifted quite a way to the right; against, for example, affirmative action, and critical of Nelson Mandela.

Given that these, and so many other, artists were able to continue their work and to use their music to fight Apartheid, I'm forced to wonder why so many SA jazzmen chose exile, rather than to stay and fight. It occurs to me that they did so because jazz is an inadequate music with which to carry on politics and that jazz musicians were, therefore, not capable of meeting the needs of their culture for politically activist music. So they moved to where the audiences weren't so fussy about what they listened to.

This is really a question, not an answer. I'd like to know what people familiar with the scene think.

MG

[jazz1]

I've been thinking about SA Jazz in the context of African music more generally.

I'm not familiar with every type of music from Africa, but I do know a bit about many. One generalisation I feel fairly sure about is that, whether in West Africa, Central Africa or Southern Africa, music is widely regarded, by both audiences and musicians, as a way of carrying on politics.

An interesting aspect of the repressive regimes of Ian Smith in (then) Rhodesia and the apartheid regime in SA was that despite the repression, music that was highly critical of those regimes was in fact permitted. Indeed, Chimurenga musicians like Thomas Mapfumo were a critical part of marshalling support on behalf of Robert Mugabe against the Smith regime. And Lucky Dube, to mention one SA Reggae singer whose work I know particularly well, recorded anti-Apartheid songs for years before that regime crumbled. Subsequently, his work shifted quite a way to the right; against, for example, affirmative action, and critical of Nelson Mandela.

Given that these, and so many other, artists were able to continue their work and to use their music to fight Apartheid, I'm forced to wonder why so many SA jazzmen chose exile, rather than to stay and fight. It occurs to me that they did so because jazz is an inadequate music with which to carry on politics and that jazz musicians were, therefore, not capable of meeting the needs of their culture for politically activist music. So they moved to where the audiences weren't so fussy about what they listened to.

This is really a question, not an answer. I'd like to know what people familiar with the scene think.

MG

[ep1str0phy]

Nothing I've read on SA jazz--and that's really the angle I've attacked these matters at--has led me to believe that highly-charged, political improvised music during apartheid was anything but persecuted--there are police "interventions" into performance spaces, harassment of individual musicians and politically-conscious businesspeople, record store raids... all that, in addition to the usual local pressures (anti-miscegenation, pass/area controls, degrading living and working circumstances, the sheer brutishness of the Boer state) that often resulted in self-imposed exile. Some thoughts, though, which qualify the above:

-The SABC, which essentially controlled major music recording and distribution throughout the apartheid regime, had a generally strict policy regarding musical idioms that did not fit within its scheme of syncretic tribalism and (divisive) culture politics. This means that many kinds of modern urban musics, like mbaqanga, and genres of foreign provenance, like jazz, ran into serious problems with the state. Although the SABC--especially toward the end of apartheid, where pressures forced parts of the state music apparatus to buckle--would occasionally allow the aforementioned musics through the apartheid noise, most musicians had a tremendously hard time at it--especially when melding these new sounds with overt political sentiments. Most jazz musicians who did remain (and there are many) and were able to support their livelihood(s) had to kowtow to state demands regarding how "jazz music" or "modern music" should be played to best coincide with the state agenda. This could be the stuff MG has heard, but I honestly can't think of any jazz/improvised music that passed through state filtering (i.e., even after selling a lot of records, before government official stepped in to, for example, confiscate stuff) in the peak apartheid years.

(for that matter, who are the many artists you've heard, MG? Really a question here, again, not a sheer antagonistic/devil's advocate thing.)

-Many SA jazz musicians, like the Jazz Epistles and Blue Notes, succeeded in securing better economic livelihoods/playing opportunities abroad during apartheid--which doesn't mean that they were rich or even happy. Many musicians secured some means of comfort by either (1) marrying into security or (2) drinking themselves half to (and sometimes completely to) death. There were, regardless, certain mechanisms that made life abroad a more attractive proposition once musicians got out of the state (although none of this does a great job, admittedly, of explaining why the cats left).

-A lot of our historical perspective has been tempered by what recordings have accomplished. Many SA jazz musicians, due to government machinations, had a better chance of getting heard without interference abroad than at home, and there's something to be said for relaying the struggle abroad (Hugh Masakela's music speaks for itself on this level, and the end result of the importation of South African music during apartheid, resulting in stuff like Paul Simon's Graceland, was to have a leavening effect on the political struggle). Also, due to government interference (and piles upon piles of quickly-confiscated materials), there just isn't a lot for us in the West to go on in terms of just how South African jazz musicians "fought" for their rights; again, many, many jazz musicians remained at home--we have the primary source accounts--but very few recordings have survived into the digital age. If you look at the already problematic economic situation of jazz music with respect to popular music (or even reggae) in most places in the world, it's no surprise that, paired with government crackdowns, relatively little politically relevant South African jazz made it into either our hands or the South African public's hands.

-Many jazz musicians played roles in the cultural wing of the SA liberation struggle. The locally-organized United Democratic Front, in conference with the ANC in exile, propped up jazz as one of the major cultural mechanisms for its local campaign; the African Jazz Pioneers helped launch the organization. The Culture and Resistance arts festival held in Gaborone, Botswanna featuring Ibrahim and Gwangwa (alongside other exiled and still local SA jazz musicians), was one of the key cultural events in the anti-apartheid movement, and the subsequent attack on Gaborone by the South African Defense Force--killing many in the "jazz" wing's entourage--only compounded the status of SA jazz musicians as cultural warriors both at home and abroad. I think this fact offsets the notion that jazz wasn't able to meet the needs of the culture for politically activist music.

-It may have just been easier to fight the good fight abroad--once abroad--than at home. One first-person account I've heard is that guys like the Blue Notes wanted to return but that the state wouldn't have them--and it was, in fact, the harassment of state officials of the Blue Notes as an interracial band (and, concurrently, the harassment of the audience watching an interracial band) that led to their going abroad. None of this had anything to do with not being politically or even economically "viable" at home (I've never heard that groups like the BNs couldn't support themselves in terms of audience size, in South Africa or abroad)--and the Blue Notes, as some of the most progressive South African improvisers, were an inspiration to many local, politically-charged musicians during apartheid. Musicians like the McGregor camp just left because personal circumstances had gotten too hot--and it was too hard to come back, long term.

-Jazz, despite the central cultural role it played in mid-century South Africa, is still jazz--some folks can't get with it. The relative size of the improvising community anywhere in the world will be small--especially compared to the % of guys working in more popular idioms (again, reggae, soul, R&B, or even "straight" mbaqanga). Really, in terms of numbers, scarce few of those more "popular" musicians were able to do direct political work during apartheid--how much more jazz musicians, who have classically had problems in America?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Thanks very much Ep1; it's clear that I was wrong.

I was looking, as you sensed, at a pretty small sample of music directly from Southern Africa (as opposed to recordings made elsewhere, aimed at different markets); generally, it's been Lucky Dube, Thomas Mapfumo, Oliver Mtukudzi, The Soul Brothers and Miriam Makeba - with the occasional piece by the Manhattan Brothers.

MG

[ep1str0phy]

I have only a passing understanding of the non-jazz thing, but Makeba had her political problems, too, right? After she got with Stokely Carmichael, especially...

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I have only a passing understanding of the non-jazz thing, but Makeba had her political problems, too, right? After she got with Stokely Carmichael, especially...

Yes, but that was in the US. The SA government revoked her passport a bit earlier, because she was in a concert, again in the US I think, against Apartheid.

MG

[ep1str0phy]

Would someone with big ears care to chime in on a suspicion I have regarding the discographical info for an unissued BoB CD? The Jizz Relics blog (jizzrelics.blogspot.com) lists the alto as Ozzie--I'm almost positive it's Dudu. Here's what I posted:

Unless someone has clear knowledge that that discographical information is 100% correct, at least some of it is incorrect. My suspicion: the alto player (1st sax solo on track 4, in pretty clear evidence on track 5) is Dudu--not Mike Osborne. My impression here is based solely on the piles and piles of listening I've been doing w/respect to the South African guys; Dudu and Mike were the alto chairs in the Brotherhood, and their styles are fairly dissimilar.

Reasons: (1) the harsher tone, frequently lapsing into chording/multiphonics (Ozzie's tone was cleaner, more reedy, and discreetly sharp in an Ornette-ish kind of way); (2) the dashing, jagged register leaps, alternating facilely between low-register multiphonics and the false register (a Dudu trademark; Osborne's tendency was to stick with a mid-register tessitura, although when he did go into overdrive--like on the Colbeck album--he tended to stay there, and with less capriciousness); (3) extensive use of portamento and pitch bending, which was always a Dudu thing (Ozzie's tone/pitch control is far more straightforward than Dudu's); (4) the tendency of phrases to trail off, as well as greater dynamic variation (I've always taken Ozzie as more of a melodic constructionist than Dudu--or at least more direct; Dudu had the early Ornette, getting at "contour" more than "form" thing going on); (5) the appearance of some of Dudu's pet phrases, including quotations from McGregor's "Now" (it goes under other names...) and a three-note motif from "Nobomyu" (from In the Townships; (6) the prominence in the ensembles (Dudu was among the more outspoken ensemble players in the Brotherhood, and his wild interpolations are almost unmistakable).

I mean, what else would Dudu be doing at this juncture? He appears with McGregor during sides made during the Blue Note split (Moholo-Moholo and Dyani had gone to South America with Lacy, the others remained in Europe), and I can't recall hearing that he'd be anywhere else where the bulk of the Brotherhood crew was present.

Granted, these are on-the-fly impressions, but whoever's playing alto does not sound like Mike and does sound like Dudu. The whole band is on a tear (which makes me regret that only two of the cuts are full band sides), which could explain any excrescent stylistic differences for this date. Still, though--some tough information would have to come out to convince me that the lineup on the front page is right.

As for Mbizo--there was an ideological split between the Brotherhood camp and Dyani somewhere along the line.

[Chalupa]

Friday, June 29 | 8pm

Valentine Trio

with

Fred Lonberg-Holm, cello

Jason Roebke, double-bass

Frank Rosely, drums

+ Louis Moholo and guests

International House Philadelphia

3701 Chestnut Street

$12 General Admission

I'm so there.

[randissimo]

I just got a copy of District Six's To Be Free. Frankly, I didn't even know that this one existed; my understanding is that it's not Chris McGregor's band, although he features prominently on the recording (doesn't compose for the group, though). There's some good playing here, especially by reedman Harrison Smith (his sax solo on the "Songs for Winnie Mandela" suite is hard, tough, and measured in the John Gilmore tradition), but all in all it feels like a tamer Very Urgent. It's certainly nice to hear McGregor play a little more "open" so late in the game, though.

Wow, I haven't heard of District Six since May, 1988 while playing a jazz & media festival in Tubingen, Germany. I was there with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. We were touring Germany and Austria performing an anti apartheid play, "The Mozamgola Caper", a musical comedy lampooning the US government's unsavory business ties with the apartheid government. The festival that day featured not only our show, but had bands and artists from South Africa, and District Six was one of the featured bands and they played great! I used to have a cassette of their music and really dug their sound! I'd love to find Cds of their tunes...

[ep1str0phy]

From what I can gather, that material shows up frequently in the LP bins but, even in the digital internet (etc.) age we live in, very, very rarely gets mentioned on the web. I'm also of the understanding that McGregor was sort of itinerant when it comes to that group--was he present for the performance?

Also--thank you for that, J.H. Granted how I'll not make it to the Vision Fest, that one might be a good place to hear Moholo...

[Chalupa]

Rumor has it that the Moholo show in Philly will be a duet w/ Marshall Allen.

[Chas]

I was there experiencing it....

....At age 17 I wrote an article that was published in Metronome Magazine about Tony Scott's visit....

And at age 16 your letter to Marshall Stearns appeared in the December 1956 issue of Jazz Today :

[garthsj]

I was there experiencing it....

....At age 17 I wrote an article that was published in Metronome Magazine about Tony Scott's visit....

And at age 16 your letter to Marshall Stearns appeared in the December 1956 issue of Jazz Today :

WOW! I have a clipping of that article, but tend to forget about it ... maybe I am embarrassed! However, there are certain prescient aspects to what I wrote ... I did end up studying the history of popular culture in America, but my Ph.D. dissertation was not on jazz, but on the social and cultural impact of the motion picture. (Published as FILM: THE DEMOCRATIC ART, Little, Brown, 1976). In return for publishing that letter, Marshall Stearns sent me a signed copy of his book, suitably inscribed ... I still have that volume sitting proudly on my shelves.

.... and I used to love JAZZ TODAY magazine, What a pity it folded so quickly, and copies are hard to find these days.

Thanks for uploading this pleasant memory ...

Edited June 1, 2007 by garthsj

[Chalupa]

So anyone heard the Chris Macgregor solo albums from Church#9 yet??

Edited August 9, 2007 by J.H. Deeley

[king ubu]

I still have to play the McGregor solo albums... (and also still have to get the two recent BoB reissues...)

But here's a fine album I found on sale last week:

McCoy Mrubata is on saxophones, with him are other young south african musicians, including Paul Hanmer (piano), Zim Ngqawana (sticking to baritone sax), Moses Khumalo (alto sax), Marcus Wyatt & Prince Lengoasa (trumpet) Monkie Senkhana (trombone), and others, forming groups of varying size.

Here's a short review that catches the moods:

Mr Mrubata starts off with cut brake cables on a downhill and doesn’t really seem to care much. As 'Wanna Talk About It' rollicks on, it’s clearly time to skoffel a bit in the dust.

When it breaks for a beer, Paul Hanmer tickles the piano, then the Desert Storm of brass armies come into play: McCoy on tenor sax, Zim Ngqawana on baritone sax, Moses Khumalo on alto sax, Marcus Wyatt and Prince Lengoasa on trumpets, and Monkie Senkhana on a full, fuzzy trombone.

But this is warfare of the groove, and they can blow it hard or slow, as 'Mr & Mrs Adonis' illustrates. 'Face The Music' is for the hips again, then the bristling 'Icamagu Livumile' takes you driving back to the house you were born in. In the same vein is 'KwaLanga', where Zim’s feet seem to be scraping over a gravel road — it’s a sparser, more emotional piece (a homage to Langa) that only lifts its head in the last minute.

Hell knows what the inspiration behind 'Venomous Toads' really is (the liner notes say: ‘for students and their mentors’), but it’s got an unsettling backbone rhythm, slightly tipped with rat poison at the ends. It’s quite trippy, with Luyanda Madope’s piano dripping even more rattling spoons into the pot. It’s good, man, it’s good.

source: http://entertainment.iafrica.com/music/archives/197798.htm

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I still have to play the McGregor solo albums... (and also still have to get the two recent BoB reissues...)

But here's a fine album I found on sale last week:

McCoy Mrubata is on saxophones, with him are other young south african musicians, including Paul Hanmer (piano), Zim Ngqawana (sticking to baritone sax), Moses Khumalo (alto sax), Marcus Wyatt & Prince Lengoasa (trumpet) Monkie Senkhana (trombone), and others, forming groups of varying size.

Here's a short review that catches the moods:

Mr Mrubata starts off with cut brake cables on a downhill and doesn’t really seem to care much. As 'Wanna Talk About It' rollicks on, it’s clearly time to skoffel a bit in the dust.

When it breaks for a beer, Paul Hanmer tickles the piano, then the Desert Storm of brass armies come into play: McCoy on tenor sax, Zim Ngqawana on baritone sax, Moses Khumalo on alto sax, Marcus Wyatt and Prince Lengoasa on trumpets, and Monkie Senkhana on a full, fuzzy trombone.

But this is warfare of the groove, and they can blow it hard or slow, as 'Mr & Mrs Adonis' illustrates. 'Face The Music' is for the hips again, then the bristling 'Icamagu Livumile' takes you driving back to the house you were born in. In the same vein is 'KwaLanga', where Zim’s feet seem to be scraping over a gravel road — it’s a sparser, more emotional piece (a homage to Langa) that only lifts its head in the last minute.

Hell knows what the inspiration behind 'Venomous Toads' really is (the liner notes say: ‘for students and their mentors’), but it’s got an unsettling backbone rhythm, slightly tipped with rat poison at the ends. It’s quite trippy, with Luyanda Madope’s piano dripping even more rattling spoons into the pot. It’s good, man, it’s good.

source: http://entertainment.iafrica.com/music/archives/197798.htm

I have an album of his - "Firebird" on Jive Jazz, from 1989. It's good, but the arrangements are a bit stiff and stilted. So I wasn't over-inclined to folow him up.

What do YOU think of it, young Sir?

MG

[king ubu]

I liked it a lot. Maybe it's a bit stiff, yes... but then it has that joyful vibe to it that I enjoy that much with SA jazz. Not the loose, free-wheeling one from Harry Miller or Chris McGregor, but that jive thing, the simple grooves, the nice hummable melodies... I have that one Zim Nqgawana alubm, and I think it compares rather favourably with that but is in a similar bag... more organized, more arranged than the Nqgawana, but that's simply due to the group's size... and I like it if there's more than one horn... the KAZ sampler "African Horns" is still one of my favourites for that kind of sound. (Though that again isn't the best reference, as the whole sound on the Mrubata disc is a lot more polished, of course...)

Will try and give it a spin again soon and report more thoroughly... I've only played it once as background listening, so it's hard to really judge yet...

[king ubu]

I'm halfway through with another spin of "Face the Music" and I think it's good! It's polished and the sound is clean (weird to wish for a worse sound quality... but it would be nicer if it sounded a bit muddier... it's just too polished in the way that most new jazz recordings coming from the US or from any major label are sounding too clean).

Anyway, Mrubata is good, Nqgawana turns in a few nice baritone spots, and both trumpet/flugelhorn players, Marcus Wyatt and Prince Lengoasa have nice solos. The rhythm goes a bit into afro-cuban territory at times (very relaxed variation though, no hectic crap), but mostly it's what I'd call a retro SA-jazz album... good tunes, good arrangements, good solos... and the groove's there, most of the time!

[king ubu]

And again "retro" isn't fair since the album incorporates some keys and stuff, has a track with a modern kind of beat etc... hard to assess for me - but in the end it's good!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Thanks a lot!

MG

[king ubu]

here's another good one:

Mathias Kielholz "Sunny Strings" - Opening (Brambus - you can buy it there, too)

Makossa Variations: Opening

Makossa Variations: Her First Heartbeat

Banga

Crippled Waltz

Irish Root Medley: D minor

Irish Root Medley: F major

Irish Root Medley: D major

Ska Maria Navarrese

Gute Nacht

Ich liebe Dur

Makossa Variations: Tribute to Ska P

The Eyes I Have Known

Flux Density

Mathias Kielholz Sunny Strings: Power World Jazz

Mathias Kielholz (g)

Philippe Schaufelberger (g)

Daniel Schenker (tp, flh)

Christoph Grab (ts, as)

Adrian Mears (tb)

Wolfgang Zwiauer (b)

Julio Barreto (dr)

Joe McHugh (tin whistle, uileann pipes)

Franz Schubert meets Afro-Jazz – this headline out of concert review meets exactly the direction of the newest project of the well known Swiss guitar maestro Mathias Kielholz, whose musical history can be followed widely within Switzerland, going from ethno-folk as the group „Echo“ to modern and free jazz with earlier groups as „Kieloor Entartet“ or „Martin Schlumpf’s Bermuda Viereck“ – and as with earlier projects, Mathias Kielholz has grouped an excellent roster of the best Swiss jazzartists and some international guests, leaded by the such as the famous percussionist Julio Barreto or uillean pipes wizard Joe McHugh.

Mathias Kielholz presents with his first album for BRAMBUS his spezial vision of world music and jazz and uses his wide musical spectrum adding jazz, afro, latin, funk, folk, skapunk and even classical! Franz Schuberts “Gute Nacht” is the only cover track on the album. All others come from Mathis Kielholz’s pen! Finally to quote the recording quality, which is full dynamic and up to date to match highest expectations.

A great addition to the fast growing brambus jazz family – welcome!

And a short review from italian AAJ (in italian, of course): http://italia.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=827

I'm giving this its third or so spin right now, and while it's not an SA jazz influenced album really, I wouldn't know where else to mention it. Juli Barreto is of Cuban origin, Adrian Mears (member of the Vienna Art Orchestra) is from ye olde britishe prison island on the southern hemisphere (the biggest fans of Gitmo, needless to say, next to Dubya and lying Tony), while the rest of the bunch is from Zurich and whereabtouts (except Joe McHugh, about whom I know nothing).

Anyway, the grooves here are african influenced and they transport quite some of the same joyful exuberance that the groovy sort of SA jazz boosts - it's not of the Miller/Moholo/BoB wilder kind, solos stay inside etc, but it's lots of fun! And the horns, Daniel Schenker, Christoph Grab and Mears are all very fine players!

The rhythm section with Barreto in charge is great - Zwiauer is a terrific electric bass player present in most Swiss bands in need of an able electric bass player... Schaufelberger is best known from being part of Lucas Niggli's genre-stretching band "Zoom" (discs on Intakt, also with extended versions like "Big Zoom" and one-off projects). I guess he's just doing the ensemble stuff here and the leader is doing the solo work, but I have no way to find that out... (ah well, I've met Schaufelberger at common friends, could ask him next time...). The leader is - also to me - the least-known of the bunch. He's been part of an important free improv band ("Kieloor Entartet", where Niggli also played, I think) in the 80s, but I have no idea what he did in the meantime... anyway, he's back with this most enjoyable project.

This is music of great warmth and lots of joy! I guess at least Sir MG ought to look for a copy!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I've just been listening to this album, which turned up today from the Sterns sale.

It's a wonderful album. I've never heard of any of the musicians, so it seems to me that there is a younger generation of SA jazz musicians, well imbued with the spirit of Abdulah Ibrahim, knocking around SA now. There are several different combinations of musicians accompanying Mrs Kekana.

Dumisani Dhlamini - piano, synth, programming, producer & engineer

Sello Manyaka - sax

Isaac "Mnca" Mtshali - drums

Mlungisi Gegana - bass

Godfrey Mgcina - perc

Kwazi Shange - drums

Fana Zulu - bass

Themba Mkhize - piano

Lawrence Matshiz - guitar

Peter Masilela - perc

Andile Yenana - piano

Ntokozo Zungu - guitar

Herbie Tsoaeli - bass

Oupa "Poys" Makhubela - guitar

I'm most impressed by Dhlamini and, particularly, by Sello Manyaka, who doen't seem to me to have anything more to do to be a great jazz saxophonist, in the Kippie Moeketsi tradition.

Most of the songs are originals, the words by Linda, the music by her husband, Ephraim Kekana, who doesn't appear on the record. The exceptions are the title track, which is a speech by Thabo Mbeki, recited and sung over an old Abdullah Ibrahim tune, the title of which eludes me for the moment; and "Senanapo" which has original music set to a traditional story.

Linda seems to me to occupy a similar kind of space to Ursula Rucker, the Philadelphia rap artist whose work is a lesson to everyone about Hip Hop and the world. Indeed, a couple of the tracks on this album are every bit as painful to listen to as some of Ursula's raps; the world CAN be a beautiful place, but often it is almost too terrible to believe. But, of course, the music is different; what you get here is the same kind of Mbaqanga influence turned into jazz via Abdulah Ibrahim, but carried into a different area. The way Linda uses her voice reminds me a bit of Abbey Lincoln; but I don't like Abbey much - I do like Linda, so it ain't the same.

This is on sale cheap at Sterns UK. You can listen to samples of all the tracks here

http://www.sternsmusic.com/disk_info.php?id=CDGURB035

But I wouldn't advise listening to either "Loss of a child" or "Newsflash" as samples. And "U could be happy too" is untypical of the album, as it's a slow Salsa number.

If you're interested in SA Jazz, make a grab for this. If you're interested in unusual and meaningful music, grab this.

MG

[ghost of miles]

There's a previously-unreleased 1971 Brotherhood of Breath concert out:

Eclipse at Dawn

Saw it at my local record shop today & plan to pick it up next week.

[king ubu]

There's a previously-unreleased 1971 Brotherhood of Breath concert out:

Eclipse at Dawn

Saw it at my local record shop today & plan to pick it up next week.

It's been mentioned over here:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=38875

I shall have to get this, but I still also need the other classic BoB albums, first... and there are a couple of other live discs available (Bremen To Bridgewater, and I think one more, also the Harry Miller Isipingo one)

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Thanks to whoever it was who recommended this

Been meaning to get it for a while.

I see that one of the guys in the band, Ntemi Piliso, is someone I picked out blind a few weeks ago and ordered two of his 1975 albums from South Africa, which are still in the post. Now VERY MUCH looking forward to getting these two, and Linda Kekana's first album.

They're cheap - cost about six quid each inc post. But the post takes forever from South Africa.

MG