Pat Matshikiza & Kippie Moketsi - 1975 - Tshona!

Pat Matshikiza & Kippie Moketsi

1975

Tshona!

01. Tshona 11:40

02. Stop and Start 05:09

03. Umgababa 11:11

04. Kippie's Prayer 03:35

Pat Matshikiza - Piano

Kippie Moeketsi - Alto Saxophone

Basil Coetzee - Tenor Saxophone

Alec Khaoli - Bass

Sipho Mabuse - Drums

Dennis Phillips - Alto Saxophone on "Tshona"

Liner Notes:

Tshona! is an influential collaborative album between pianist Pat Matshikiza, and saxophonist Kippie Moketsi originally released on The Sun label in 1975, also featuring Basil Mannenberg Coetzee.

We Are Busy Bodies will reissue the album as part of its Pat Matshikiza and Kippie Moketsi trilogy of releases. The album has been remastered from the original tape by Noah Mintz and artwork restored by Steve Lewin.

Tshona is a Xhosa command meaning plunge into the water or dive into a hole - the meaning captured by artist Mafa Ngwenya in the cover drawing. Language purists, however, shake their heads and see a generation going to the dogs when they hear us in the townships saying "Tshona" when we invite somebody to join us in work we are doing, or when we point to a destination and tell a guy: 'Tshona Khona'. But with the poetry of the young, we ignore the purists and continue to invite people to our immersion: 'Tshona'. - Joe Thloloe

As a member of the all-star Jazz Epistles in the late 1950s, saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi (also spelled Moketsi during his tenure with the As-Shams record label in the 1970s) was one of the pioneering forces of modern South African jazz. While Jazz Epistles bandmates Hugh Masekela and Abdullah Ibrahim would go on to build their careers in the United States in the 1970s, it was at home in South Africa that Moeketsi would leave his mark on the domestic jazz discography. From the outset of record store owner Rashid Vally's forays into the production of independent jazz in the early 1970s, Kippie Moeketsi played a key role, notably as a featured sideman on Abdullah Ibrahim's Dollar Brand Plus 3 in 1973. While Moeketsi had a reputation as a great interpreter of standards with a firm grasp of jazz as an American idiom, he notably steps into deep South African jazz territory with a pair of his own compositions on the album Tshona! (released on Vally's nascent As-Shams/The Sun label in 1975). With equal participation from pianist Pat Matshikiza (also a well established South African jazz figure at the time), Tshona! emerges as one of the great South African jazz collaborations of the 1970s and is revered as a canonical recording from this era. Moeketsi and Matshikiza were flanked by the Soweto's hottest rhythm section by way of drummer Sipho Mabuse and bassist Alec Khaoli of Harari and featured on tenor sax was none other than Basil Coetzee, who's contribution to Abdullah Ibrahim's breakout hit record Mannenbeg - 'Is Where It's Happening' the year prior had earned him the esteemed appellation Basil "Mannenberg" Coetzee. With the album cover bearing a playful illustration of a pair of township thugs by artist Mafa Ngwenya, Tshona! is the ultimate jazz document of its time and place - modern, urban, original, authentic and unmistakably South Africa. Moeketsi and Matshikiza would continue to record together for As-Shams/The Sun with Moeketsi featured on Pat Mathsikiza's Sikiza Matshikiza album in 1976. Matshikiza returned the favour in 1977, appearing on Moeketsi's Blue Stompin' album, which featured the Hal Singer Quartet on the title track.

One of our favorite South African jazz albums of the 70s -- a set of long-spun tracks that offers up a perfect illustration of the special qualities that made the scene so unique! There's a great sense of rhythm to the music -- the piano of Pat Matshikiza dancing over the rolling work from Alec Khaoli on bass and Sipho Mabuse on drums -- moving along at a pace that's different than the modalism in American jazz, but equally rhythmic -- as it opens the way for these soaring solos from Kippie Moketsi on alto and Basil Coetzee on tenor -- both legends on the SA scene, getting a wonderful showcase on the album's long tracks.