Spirits Rejoice - 1978 - Spirits Rejoice!

Spirits Rejoice

1978

Spirits Rejoice!

01. Emakhaya

02. Woza Uzo Kudanisa Nathi

03. Music Is Our Purpose

04. Spirits

05. Happy And In Love

06. Confusions

07. Why All This Time

08. Papa's Funk

Alto Saxophone, Flute, Lead Vocals – Robbie Jansen

Backing Vocals – Joy (32) (tracks: B1, B4)

Bass Guitar – Sipho Gumede

Drums, Bell Tree, Vibraslap, Finger Cymbals – Gilbert Matthews*

Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – Paul Petersen (3)

Electric Piano, Strings, Piano, Synthesizer – Mervyn Africa

Percussion – George Tyefumani (tracks: A2)

Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Duke Makasi

Trumpet [1st] – George Tyefumani

Trumpet [2nd] – Thabo Mashishi

Vocals – George Tyefumani (tracks: A1)

South African response to the modern jazz sounds represented overseas by bands such as Weather Report. The group included guitarists Herman and Enoch Mthalane, reedman Duku Makasi and Robbie Jansen, brass players George Tyefumani and Themba Mehlomakhulu, bassist Sipho Gumede and for a time Bheki Mseleku on keyboards, later replaced by Mervyn Afrika.

The band’s innovative original music won plaudits and fans, and for younger players such as saxophonist Khaya Mahlangu who joined one of its later incarnations, was an inspiring learning experience, impelling him and Gumede to explore whether an even more African-sounding response to jazz fusion was possible by founding Sakhile.

Behind the scenes, as Francis Gooding’s liner notes recount, the sailing wasn’t quite so smooth.

Mthalane was fired because the band’s white management could not accommodate his proud assertion of his home language, isiZulu; Mseleku’s later departure echoed those same politics. Though the music on African Spaces was recorded during October 1976, no South African label was interested in such innovative jazz; a stance reflecting their commercial imperatives (and political timidity) at a time when radio was the best way to promote records, but the SABC’s ethnically segregated stations were wary of boundary-busting music they could not comfortably fit within a language-group slot.