I have a couple of recommendations for South African jazz artists, but the
thing is, like the MELT 2000 releases, all of these albums are pressed
overseas (from Africa that is)... nevertheless if your girl is good enuff
to you that she'll go digging in dusty crates, you may find some
interesting things by these artists:
Hugh Masekela - Hailing from South Africa, he is one of the first and
foremost S.A. jazz musicians. Be careful, though, because some of his
albums are total cheese, especially some of the early ones which are
akin to Sergio Mendes's brazil 66 project.. in that they fuse Masekela's
native sound with corny 60's American pop. However in the late 60's and
early 70's he got into a real funky mode... check out his releases on Blue
Thumb, 'I am not afraid' and 'Home is where the music is' (could this be
where Gil Scot Heron got his song title from?) Another thing I picked up
from him is a compilation of his work on verve, I think, which is
phenominal.
Miriam Makeba - another prolific S.A. jazz vocalist whose releases are a
real crapshoot - some are great and some are super cheese. Look for a song
by her called 'Samba', it's an acid-jazz-rare-groove-brazilian classic of
the highest order.
Abdullah Ibrahim a.k.a. Dollar Brand - a jazz pianist whose work is more
consistently good than the other two... I've never heard anything from him
that I absolutely went crazy over, but he's definitely got his place in
the jazz world in the post bop style, with a lot of influences and
collaborations with the US jazz musicians who went to their african roots
- Lonnie Liston Smith, Muhal Richard Abrams, Gary Bartz, Weldon Irvine,
eddie harris, etc...
If I were in a record store in S.Africa I would look for music by these
other African artists:
King Sunny Ade
Baba Olatunji
Obo Addy
Fela Kuti
baba maal
and maybe some reggae, like Alpha Blondy....
peace,
Nat
On Fri, 5 Jan 2001 GlesneM@aol.com wrote:
>
> My girl is leaving me for South Africa for a while, so to make the most of it
> I'd love some tips as to any music i should have her seek out for me. It
> looks like Melt 2000 is putting out some heavy work recently in this area. I
> espescially like the Moses Taiwa Molelekwa "genes and spirits" LP. He's a
> young Monkish pianist to seek out if you're into rythmic jazz piano. (there
> is a track called Rapela that sounds straight outta the jazzy west london
> stables - along with some drum n bass fusions). I've been checking other
> stuff on Melt 2000 but am looking for more exciting stuff. Thanks!
>
> Matt
>
>
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