Lionel Pillay featuring Basil Mannenberg Coetzee - 1979 - Plum And Cherry

Lionel Pillay featuring Basil Mannenberg Coetzee

1979

Plum And Cherry

01. Cherry 25:35

02. Plum 19:03

Lionel Pillay – Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, Other Keyboards

Basil Coetzee – Tenor Sax on “Cherry”

Rod Clark – Drums, Percussion

Charles Johnstone – Bass

Recorded at Gallo Studios

Engineer – Robin Ritchie

Cover Painting by Hargreaves Ntukwana

Produced by Lionel Pillay & Rashid Vally

A wonderful blend of 70s electric modes and the spiritual currents of the Gallo label on the South African scene – and a record that really stands as a testament to the talents and timing of keyboard player Lionel Pillay! The set just features two long tracks – building with a groove as Pillay uses either electric piano or organ alongside the bass of Charles Johnstone and drums and percussion of Rod Clark – stretching things out, and never forcing the groove too much – so that the record builds in a really nice way. Basil Manneberg Coetzee provides a wonderful tenor solo on the 25 minute track "Cherry" – almost evoking Stanley Turrentine with his tone – and the 19 minute "Plum" is just a keyboard showcase for Pillay in the trio!

Following the April 2022 reissue of the album Shrimp Boats, We Are Busy Bodies presents companion titles Plum and Cherry and Deeper in Black to round out a Lionel Pillay and Basil Mannenberg Coetzee “trilogy” as part of the label’s As-Shams South African jazz archive series. The connection between these three albums is tight as the 1987 release Shrimp Boats compiled unreleased recordings from both the 1979 session for Plum and Cherry and the 1980 session for Deeper in Black. These two rare records have been carefully remastered from their original tapes and are back in print for the very first time in over 40 years.

Shrimp Boats and Plum and Cherry capture the extraordinary musical chemistry that existed between pianist Lionel Pillay and tenor saxophonist Basil Coetzee in the late 1970s. The respective album showpieces “Shrimp Boats” and “Cherry” each occupy an entire side of vinyl with both exquisite musical journeys clocking in at an epic 25 minutes a piece. While “Shrimp Boats” was an instrumental reimagining of the popular 1951 song by American singer Jo Stafford, “Cherry” drew inspiration from Abdullah Ibrahim at the behest of producer Rashid Vally, who wanted to emulate the success of the famous track that had helped launch his independent As-Shams/The Sun record label in 1974. Ibrahim’s hit “Mannenberg” had also featured Basil Coetzee and it was this zeitgeist South African jazz recording that had given rise to his stage name.

Capturing the grace and vitality of working-class township life on the city fringe, “Cherry” channels the type of laid-back Cape groove that Abdullah Ibrahim, recording as Dollar Brand, introduced to South African jazz in the 1970s. On the flip side, “Plum” appears to take its own simple chord change in the same direction before breaking into a chugging 20-minute romp that verges on proto-electronica and on which Pillay hangs all manner of savage keyboard riffing and experimentation. The two distinct flavours of Plum and Cherry make for a well-rounded platter with an iconic cover featuring the work of abstract expressionist painter and As-Shams/The Sun collaborator Hargreaves Ntukwana.