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Dennis Mpale: The Man Behind the Trumpet
by Seton Hawkins
The late Dennis Mpale was one of South Africa's greatest trumpet players. Chronologically, he entered the picture shortly after Hugh Maskela and worked with artists from Abdullah Ibrahim and Jonas Gwangwa to Mackay Davashe and Kippie Moeketsi. Like many of the musicians of his generation, Mpale left South Africa to live in exile in London, not returning til the early 1990s.The Man Behind the Trumpet is one part greatest hits, one part tribute album. Eight of the thirteen ...
Continue ReadingPat Matshikiza: Seasons, Masks And Keys
by Seton Hawkins
Seasons, Masks And Keys functions as a retrospective of pianist and composer Pat Matshikiza's career. It is a long-overdue attempt to bring more recognition to this highly influential, yet underrecorded figure in South African jazz. Although nobody questions his status as one of the genre's great figures, given his 1975 landmark recording Tshona!, Matshikiza recordings are rare and difficult to come by. This album, perhaps, is the first step to fixing this problem. The recording consists of pieces ...
Continue ReadingWest Nkosi: Sixteen Original Sax Jive Hits
by Ed Kopp
Before he died from injuries sustained in a car crash in 1998, West Nkosi produced hit records for renowned South African bands Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens. A household name in South Africa, Nkosi was best known as a producer, but he also achieved popularity as an alto saxophonist and pennywhistler. In the '60s and ‘70s, Nkosi was one of the chief practitioners of sax jive, a simple but danceable form of township ...
Continue ReadingThe African Jazz Pioneers: The Best Of
by Jack Bowers
It’s always fascinating to hear how musicians from other countries have taken “America’s music” — Jazz — and adapted it to suit their ethnic and cultural heritage. This is especially true when one considers the music of Africa, one of the primary wellsprings of Jazz’s syncopated rhythmic patterns. Rhythm is what African ensembles are about, an observation that is emphatically underscored by the African Jazz Pioneers (from the Republic of South Africa) on this collection of some of their best ...
Continue ReadingThe African Jazz Pioneers: The Best Of
by Jack Bowers
It's always fascinating to hear how musicians from other countries have taken “America's music" - Jazz - and adapted it to suit their ethnic and cultural heritage. This is especially true when one considers the music of Africa, one of the primary wellsprings of Jazz's syncopated rhythmic patterns. Rhythm is what African ensembles are about, an observation that is emphatically underscored by the African Jazz Pioneers (from the Republic of South Africa) on this collection of some of their best ...
Continue ReadingAfrican Jazz Pioneers: Afrika Vukani
by Javier AQ Ortiz
Although these days Africa, as well as humanity at large, is rightly concerned about contagions of all sorts, some infections can be quite beneficial. Good music, for example, has always been viral in nature no matter where it comes from, what languages coalesce in it or which influences entwine in its social and cultural genetic codes. One, therefore, could say that once such musical expressions make their way to our brains, an infection has occurred. Vaccines, on the other hand, ...
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