Re: south african jazz

From: Nathaniel Rahav (nat@rhythmlove.com)
Date: Fri Jan 05 2001 - 20:37:54 CET

  • Next message: Leslie N. Shill: "Re: south african jazz"

    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
    >
    >



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Jan 05 2001 - 21:06:40 CET