African Jazz

To some, the term "Ethiopian jazz" might seem impossible; after all, it's a very American form. But what's truly surprising isn't the fact that these musicians play jazz so well, but the range of jazz they manage, from the George Benson-ish guitar workout of...

Bassist Johnny Dyani had a large tone and a relaxed yet authoritative style. On this classic SteepleChase release he teams up with two other South African expatriates (altoist Dudu Pukwana and drummer Makay Ntshoko) plus cornetist Don Cherry for music that is haunting, emotional, somewhat...

Released as a double LP on Chisa/Blue Thumb in 1972, Hugh Masekela's Home Is Where the Music Is marked an accessible but sharp detour from his more pop-oriented jazz records of the '60s. Masekela was chasing a different groove altogether. He was looking to create a very different kind...

The extraordinary South African pianist meets his countryman, the late, very great bassist Johnny Dyani, and the result is one of the single most beautiful recordings of the '70s. The duo mix in raditional African and Islamic songs and perform with a fervor and depth of feeling rarely...

In patching together a program of Hugh Masekela's MGM recordings onto a single overstuffed CD, Verve took the original The Americanization of Ooga Booga album, leapfrogged over its successor, Next Album, and coupled it with the third MGM LP, The Lasting Impressions of Hugh Masekela. That...

The dates of only a few of these 11 songs are given in the liner notes. It's certain that the 69 minutes of music spans the early '70s to the mid-'80s at the least, but beyond that, the chronology isn't laid out, leaving neophytes to wonder how much of his career this best-of...

This live concert was a reunion celebration between pianist/composer Randy Weston and the Gnawa Master Musicians of Morocco, who recorded together eight years before for the Verve album The Splendid Master Gnawa Musicians of Morocco. It took place in Brooklyn in September of 2000 and is a...

Africadelic: The Best of Manu Dibango is an outstanding retrospective of Manu Dibango's career, with a focus on the early years. With Dibango hailed as one of the early originators of the world music scene, this album does a good job of looking over the years prior to his mainstream...

Released to coincide with Hugh Masekela's autobiography of the same name, Still Grazing picks up the Masekela story from Verve's summary of the best of the MGM albums, The Lasting Impression of Ooga-Booga, and runs through the Uni and Blue Thumb material. The 1966 tracks are from The...

Randy Weston revisits a number of his earlier works with his African Rhythms Trio, though this session is no mere rehashing of old favorites. With bassist Alex Blake and African hand percussionist Neil Clarke, Weston hardly sounds like a man nearing his 80th birthday, as his playing is still...

This was a very special recording for pianist/composer Abdullah Ibrahim because, after nearly 30 years of exile, he was back in Cape Town, South Africa performing with local musicians. The musicianship is surprisingly high and the African septet does a fine job of interpreting eight of...

This was a nicely blended, somewhat mellow and seemingly quite finished recording by Abdullah Ibrahim with Carlos Ward (alto sax, flute), Essiet Okun Essiet (bass), and Don Mumford (drums) called Zimbabwe. Interspaced with non-originals were four Ibrahim compositions, most of which were inspired...

Abdullah Ibrahim's spiritual and very melodic South African folk music is always worth hearing and his individuality remains quite impressive. This set, recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, features the pianist (who also plays a bit of soprano and adds his emotional voice to the...

After a decade of generally intriguing recordings, pianist Abdullah Ibrahim really found his own voice by the early '70s. His lengthy solo set from February 18, 1973, originally released as a pair of Sackville LPs (Sangoma and African Portraits), has been reshuffled and expanded a bit upon...

Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim has celebrated his South African heritage in music ever since being forced to emigrate from his homeland in the early '60s. Considering that this CD was recorded in Cape Town, South Africa in 1997 and that apartheid is a thing of the past, it is not surprising that...

African Magic is a sweeping 24-part suite recorded live at the 11th and final Jazz Across the Border Festival in Germany in 2001 by the Abdullah Ibrahim Trio. Ibrahim's trio features acoustic bassist Belden Bullock and drummer Sipho Kunene distilling the melodic sounds of South Africa into...

Hugh Masekela recorded for a series of American labels between the mid-'60s and mid-'70s: Mercury; MGM; Decca's Uni subsidiary; and his own Chisa label, distributed first by Motown and then by Blue Thumb. All of those labels have since been incorporated within the major label...

This two-and-a-half-hour concert recording serves both to sum up the career of its performer, now that he is north of 65 years old, and also to demonstrate that he is still working at his peak. Hugh Masekela's voice is more gravelly than in the past, but his flugelhorn playing is as good as...

Adam Rudolph is percussion master, composer, arranger, and producer. His Moving Pictures group has been one of his three mainstays (along with HU Vibrational and Go: Organic Orchestra) since he founded the group in 1992 (despite having literally dozens of other projects including the Mandingo...

An album that fuses the influence of African music, jazz-rock, and free improvisation, Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath shares affinities with the '70s music of Don Cherry and Miles Davis. Somewhat of a legendary album amongst collectors of British jazz and fusion, the LP was...