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Abdullah Ibrahim: A Celebration & Re:Brahim
by AAJ Staff
Now entering his eighth decade, Abdullah Ibrahim has long ago established himself as a true master of jazz--whether in New York, London, Cape Town, or beyond. The pianist has accomplished two very important things in the last fifty years. First, he has brought South African jazz to the world, recruiting new fans to its ...
Jazz: Out of Africa
by AAJ Staff
These two jazz-oriented recordings explore unexpected multicultural fusions with African music. The first, one of two inaugural releases on American drummer Jack DeJohnette's own Golden Beams label, delves into West African trance music in a duo with Gambia's Foday Musa Suso. The second, a 2003 recording on the Jazzbank label, finds Congolese pianist and percussionist B.B. ...
North Africa: Rocking el Casbah
by AAJ Staff
Geography and history have left North Africa with an impressively mixed up musical culture. It's way too much of an oversimplification to say that Algerian music, for example, is a straightforward mix of traditional Arabic and southwestern European styles. It also includes elements of salsa and reggae, Jewish folkloric music, American rock 'n' roll, Euro club ...
Zimbabwe: Thomas Mapfumo
by AAJ Staff
More than any other artist except perhaps Oliver “Tuku" Mtukudzi, Thomas Mapfumo has become Zimbabwe's musical ambassador to the world. That's ironic, because while the people of his country celebrate his music with the enthusiasm it deserves, the government--or more accurately, regime--of Zimbabwe really does not. So much so that Mapfumo eventually decided to leave and ...
The Aftermath: KwaZulu-Natal
by AAJ Staff
After visiting Cape Town and taking in its jazz festival, I went on to spend a few days in Durban and outlying areas. Click on the photos below to see larger versions.The city of Durban, located on the Indian Ocean, is the busiest port in Africa, as well as a local tourist hub with ...
Day Two: 2005 Cape Town International Jazz Festival
by AAJ Staff
Day 1 | Day 2 | The Aftermath Cape Town The city of Cape Town is located in the area where Portuguese navigators first made the open water connection between Atlantic and Indian Oceans over four hundred years ago. In subsequent development by the Dutch, it became an outpost for East-West trade routes, and ...
2005 Cape Town International Jazz Festival: Africa's Grandest Gathering
by AAJ Staff
Day 1 | Day 2 | The Aftermath Two days after my arrival in South Africa, things are still a blur. I planned this trip months ago and I did plenty of homework in advance, but nothing can adequately prepare you for the explosive cultural and human landscape of South Africa. Home to over ...
The Sahara: Festival in the Desert & Tinariwen
by AAJ Staff
Festival in the Desert A Film by Lionel Brouet World Village 2004 For three days in early January of 2003, camels and 4x4s converged upon an oasis in Essakane, Mali. They brought with them a curious collection of Tuareg nomads and local musicians, even groups from Europe and ...
South Africa: Pop for a Rainy Day
by AAJ Staff
South Africa may be best known in the rest of the world for its significant jazz and gospel output, but it's also home to a burgeoning pop scene which merges kwaito (a homegrown techno/hip-hop/house hybrid) with various roots and international influences. These two records exemplify the modern sounds of urban South Africa, a place where restless ...
Ted Gioia: The History of Jazz
by AAJ Staff
About Ted GioiaTed Gioia was raised in Hawhtorne, California, a working class neighborhood in the South-Central area of Los Anglees county. Jazz was not part of Hawthorne's nightlife--indeed, the city is perhaps best known as hometown to the Beach Boys. But while his friends and classmates listened to surf and soul music, Gioia was practicing the ...
