Hi all,
Well here I am sitting in Cape Town and what a great surprise to see some
interest in our local music. Although my interests lie more on the dance
side of things, specifically deep house and d 'n b, I would be happy to lend
a hand where I can should your girl come down to Cape Town and wish to
peruse the odd record store. I can also suggest many good club nights in
and around this city so tell her to give me a shout should she so wish.
Simon
ps. Leslie you've really got it down, your knowledge of the local scene is
truly amazing.
-----Original Message-----
From: Leslie N. Shill [mailto:icehouse@redshift.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 06, 2001 12:45 AM
To: Nathaniel Rahav
Cc: acid; GlesneM@aol.com
Subject: Re: south african jazz
regarding jazz in South Africa, there is a good local musical scene although
it lags most of the rest of the Western world in some senses. The
suggections that have come to you thus far encompass only the better known
South African artists who have achieved some measure of world-wide
recognition but, like most of Africa, the country of South Africa is a very
musical one with a long and rich history. The record stores suffer because
of the price of imported goods, albums sell for close to and also over $100
of their money! If you are paying with US$ then there are some good buys to
be found. In Johannesburg you might look around in the suburb of Rosebank
for the Compact Disc Warehouse which carries a pretty good inventory, the
owner's name is Leonard and tell him that you are a friend of Leslie Shill
(ME!) who sent you to him and either he or his staff will assist you ably.
In the Hyde park Shopping Centre there is also another good record store
worth checking out although I forget the name because it has been a couple
of years since I was back there. In the Sandton City shopping centre which
is a HUGE development, there are also a couple of good stores whose names I
am also unable to recall, Recordia could be one of them.
Look for a group called Tananas who are technically very accomplished musos
with at least a couple of worthwhile albums to their credit. Some of the
other artists that I happen to like and that you may find interesting are as
follows: Pops Mohammed, one of my favorites who ahs appeared on the MELT
compilations and who has a great album called Ancestral Healing produced by
an American guitarist who has a great feel for the music. Kippie Moeketsi is
another great jazz musician from RSA. If you look hard, you might be able to
find some music by The Brotherhood of Breath a largely British combine led
by the late Chris McGregor a South African pianist that featured some of the
best jazz musicians that have come out of RSA. Johnnie Fourie is a guitarist
in the Mclaughlin vein who currently has a band with his son that has some
good African twists in and out of it's mixolydian structures. Johnny Boshoff
is an absolutely phenomenal bass player who has done some sterling playing
and producing. Sakhile is another great band from the country that has some
phenomenal members a number of whom have albums issued under their own
names. Believe me, there are many homegrown and truly great artists playing
in the country, Johnny Clegg is yet another example and with Sipho Mchune is
the leader of Juluka who have released many albums that are, at their core,
township and tribal music, with the filigree of modern and electronic sounds
and arrangements to their credit.
for a website that will help you somewhat and perhaps give you some good
leads please go to www.3rdearmusic.com and you will find a site that is both
informative and interesting. Dave Marks, the man behind 3rd Ear wrote a song
many years ago that brought him some ineternational renown and also landed
him a job with Hanley Sound working at the first Woodstock festival. he is
also a personal friend of mine and feel free to call him up and use me as a
referral. Dave is a wondeful man with a heart of gold and he has been one of
the pillars of the music scene in RSA for as long as I can remember. I
played many concerts in South Africa under the auspices of the folk music
scene which Dave really founded and which was, for may years, the only way
for artists with original music to get any sort of hearing. The 3rd Ear site
also has some albums available on it which you may want to check out.
The club scene in South Africa is particularly strong in Cape Town but there
is a fairly well-developed rave scene in the country. Dave Seaman recorded
his Global Underground album live in Cape Town and the city has some good
clubs and a strong dance scene happening there. Actually, Cape Town is one
of the most beautiful cities in the world and would be worth a visit just
for the sheer physical magnificence of the place. It is also where the first
settlers landed in southern Africa in the late 1600's and it is steeped in
history and cultural significance.
For 4 years I was going out there as the resident DJ at the Rustler's Valley
music festival which used to happen over the Easter long weekend. go to
their site which is at
www.rustlers.co.za
check it out! there may very well be some live music happening in the Valley
while your sweetheart is there and Frik and Jeunesse, the owners of the
Valley, are very close friends of mine and I am sure they will accommodate
and inform as is necessary. There is a lodge at the valley that has rooms
that are very cheap by US standards and the whole place is worth seeing for
it's physical beauty and for the vibe, there has been some form of human
habitation there for 100,000 years according to the carbon-dating of the
cave paintings found on the site. Again your sweetheart can refer to me if
she wants. The Valley is the site of some serious partying on a continuing
basis and I cannot begin to tell you what a rush it is to be spinning there
as the sun breaks over the mountains of Lesotho across the floor of the
valley and the last few hundred die-hard dancers are still whirling, I count
these experiences as some of my best deejaying times and I hope to return
there for me later this year!
South Africa really has a wealth of musical treasure to dig into. Please
remember that Johannesburg in particular is not a very safe place most of
the time, no matter what racial group you belong to! Cape Town is much safer
but take care as a whole anyway! If you go out into the country side and
spend any time you are likely to encounter the local itinerant musicians all
over the place and you will hear some real magical stuff. In Africa people
play and instrument or sing as they walk to alert any wild creatures that
they are coming, you can hear this in some of the rhythms of the music.
Listen, I could go on and on but I think that you probably have enough to go
on for now. From a food point of view, RSA has some excellent eating, if you
like fish, try Kingklip which has a sort of Halibut-like consistency. the
lobster there is A-1 and the prawns from Maputo (formerly Mozambique) are
amazing. there is a local sausage called boerewors, literally farmers
(boere) sausage(wors) that is usually a part of any barbecue(braaivleis -
broil=braai and vleis=meat). You can also find good curry there thanks to
the large East Indian population. the Cape was discovered in the search for
a route to the Spice countries, read India and the rest of Asia for this!
If you need any more info or want to know something specific, feel free to
contact me and I can give you a phone number if you want one. I am unsure as
to how many listees are South African and living in South Africa but I live
in Monterey, CA and I do a show at www.kazu.org on Tues, Wed, Thurs from
8-10 PM Pacific Standard Time that is at 90.3 FM for the local area.
i hope this helps somewhat!
cheers and have a really good trip!
leslie/The Power of Sound
----- Original Message -----
From: Nathaniel Rahav <nat@rhythmlove.com>
To: <GlesneM@aol.com>
Cc: <acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2001 11:37 AM
Subject: 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
> >
> >
>
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