jazz the african sound

8/14/2019 Jazz the African Sound

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Jazz: The African Sound a unique South African

jazz album

By Tony McGregor

September 2008

The African Sound spells out clearly the character and direction of

South African jazz towards its own territorial identity a vigorous, lively,

good-humoured swing which you will not find anywhere else on earth,

North America included. So wrote the Johannesburg Stars critic Richard

McNeill of the original release of this album.

This album of original South

African jazz is unique in

many ways it was the first

album of South African jazz

composed, arranged and

played by an all-South

African big band. At the

time of its release in 1963 it

was unique also in that the

band members were both

white and Black. At the time

this was almost unthinkable

in South Africa.

The uniqueness also came

from the fact that the band

which made it had a very

circumscribed life the

band was together for a total of

three weeks, during which time they rehearsed, did a number of concerts

and the recording.

In September of 1963 there was a jazz festival at the Moroka-Jabavu

Stadium in Soweto. This festival was underwritten by the brewers of

Castle Lager Beer, South African Breweries (now SABMiller). All the best-

known names in South African jazz were there and, although the festival

itself was not a great success, some great music emerged from it.

Maxine McGregor, widow of Chris McGregor, who was responsible for the

arrangements on the album, writes in her book Chris McGregor and the

Brotherhood of Breath:

Chris took advantage of the proximity of all the best

jazz musicians in the country to persuade the breweriesto back him in another venture a big (17-piece) band

Jazz the African Sound Page 1

1 The cover of the CD re-release of the album


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with the musicians

of his choice. They

gave him a week

to arrange, teach

and rehearse withthe band, and

during that time

he did not sleep at

all. Chris was not

given to arranging

music very fast; he

gave a lot of

thought and time

to his work, but

once done he

rarely had to

amend anything.

He would sit up all

night writing the

arrangements and

during the days

set about teaching each musician his part and trying

them out together. Not all the musicians could read

music which was an added complication, but as they

were used to playing by ear they were astonishingly

quick to pick up the arrangements. Twenty-four hours

for each song, seven by the end of the first week; then

they played several concerts in the townships round

Johannesburg and in Benoni and Boksburg.

The result was a band that, in spite of their different backgrounds and

experience, came together in an amazing way to make some truly original

and beautiful music, a classic in South African jazz.

It was a project that pianist, composer and arranger Chris McGregor had

been dreaming of for some time: I have waited for years to hear a band

composed of the brightest stars in South African jazz and my note-books

are full of projected personnel and worthwhile compositions for such a

venture, the fruits of listening to and being involved with this lovely thing,

jazz music in South Africa, he wrote in the liner notes to the album.

As McGregor said in an interview with Graham Lock (Chasing the

Vibration, Exeter: Stride Publications, 1994) some 20 years later: Im an

absolute nut for big bands. I love the colours and the energy flow of big

groups. Ive always been ultra-attracted by that organisation and putting-


2 The cover of Maxine McGregor's book


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together capacity that was so uniquely

Dukes. I love playing, arranging,

composing the lot!

McGregors love for playing, arranging,

composing certainly comes through onthis album: two of the six numbers are

his own compositions, all the

arrangements and of course he is

leading the whole enterprise from the

piano. The other four compositions on

the album are two each from Kippie

Morolong Moeketsi and Dollar Brand

(Abdullah Ibrahim).

The album opens with Kippies songSwitch which McGregor arranged to

showcase his alto playing. Its a medium-tempo number which McGregor

writes has no real key but has a feeling of departure

and return through the riff used as introduction and

coda.At just more than six minutes it is the longest track on the album.

Next up is Dollar Brands Kippie which, as McGregor writes, was

composed by Dollar to express the way he feels about Kippie and I have

arranged to express the way I feel about both of them. After a short

ensemble opening, there follows a long passage of piano, bass and drums,setting the generally reflective tone of the piece. The bridge before Kippie

enters on clarinet is carried by two tenors and another alto (Nikele

Moyake, Ronnie Beer and Dudu Pukwana). Kippies clarinet solo is simply

stunning, and at its end I keep wishing for more. The somewhat

Ellingtonian climax with all the horns leads into Kippies soulful ending.

The mood

changes abruptly

with the

energeticopening bars of

Brands Eclipse

at Dawn, in

which the theme

is laid down by

Kippie on

clarinet,

accompanied by

Dudu Pukwanaon alto and


Kippie in a photo by Hardy Stockman


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Mongezi

Feza on

muted trumpet, before an understated but swinging piano solo by

McGregor before Kippie gets down with his clarinet again, swinging like

crazy! Kippies solo is followed by a great tenor solo by Nikele Moyake.Some great trombone sounds in the bridge and then its back to the

theme with Kippie, Dudu and Mongezi.

Eight years later McGregor would again record Eclipse at Dawn, this time

with the Brotherhood of Breath at the 1971 Berliner Jazztage festival. This

time the song becomes the springboard for an exuberant free blow,

introduced by a long, slow introduction with a mostly bowed bass by Harry

Miller leading interpolations from various instruments. In this version of

the tune McGregors piano is hardly heard at all and the solos are taken by

Nick Evans on trombone and Mike Osborne on alto. Altogether a verydifferent take on the song showing what a difference exposure to the freer

jazz atmosphere of Europe had made to both McGregor and Pukwana, who

were in fact the only two musicians on this album who had also been part

ofThe African Sound.

But back to The African Sound. The next track is the swinging, up-tempo

Early Bird by McGregor, a tribute to drummer Early Bird Mabusa. It is

marked by energetic ensemble playing by all the horns in dynamic

exchanges with Mabusas drums, plus some great solo work by, among

others, a young and up-coming alto player Barney Rachabane whosepassion and exciting playing are already noticeable. An elegant solo by

McGregor is also a feature of the track.

After all the energy of Early Bird comes Kippies reflective, beautiful

ballad I Remember Billy, his clarinet leading into some wonderfully

sonorous phrases from the whole band, with muted trumpets adding

gentle highlights to the sonic landscape. The brass section really

dominates for a few minutes before Kippie comes back with some soulful

clarinet responses, before he signs off the whole thing.

Next up is another McGregor tune listed on the album as Now but moreusually called Manje which is the Xhosa word for now. This is the only

tune on this album apart from Eclipse at Dawn that McGregor recorded

elsewhere. It was recorded twice by McGregors group The Blue Notes in

the following year, 1964, on albums released many years later called

respectively Township Bop and The Blue Notes Legacy. It was recorded

twice again in 1971, this time by McGregors later big band the

Brotherhood of Breath, on albums also released many years later: Bremen

to Bridgwater and Eclipse at Dawn. Another version of the song was

recorded in 1975 and also released on the Bremen to Bridgewateralbum.


4 Chris at the piano with the Castle Lager Big Band. Photo by Basil Breakey


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The Blue Notes came back to the song in 1977 on an album called The

Blue Notes in Concert Volume 1 released by Ogun in 1978.

As McGregor wrote in the liner notes this song was about Nikele Moyake,

the great tenor player who does most of the soloing during this big band

showcase number, with the rest of the horns roaring enthusiasticallybehind him. A fitting end to a great album of classic South African jazz.

The masters of this album were lost from the Gallo tape vaults and could

not be found when the company wanted to re-release it as part of their

African Heritage series. The re-release was made possible by a South

African jazz who used to buy two copies of any South African jazz album

he liked, and typically kept one of the copies sealed and unplayed. Luckily

he had such a copy of this album and the CD was mastered from the

sealed, unplayed vinyl. Fortunately the sound of the original album was so

good that the re-mastering from vinyl was very successful and the CDsounds amazingly fresh and full.


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