Gideon Nxumalo - 1970 - Early-Mart

Gideon Nxumalo

1970

Early-Mart

01. Early - Mart
02. Frustration
03. Slow Blues
04. When The Saints Go Marching In

Piano – Gideon Nxumalo
Guitar – Allen Kwela
Bass – Morris Manana
Drums – Gordon Mfandu
Flute – Dennis Nene
Trumpet – Stompie Manana / Kleinkie Rubushe / Johnny Selilo / Dennis Mpale
Trombone – Blyth Mbityana
Alto Sax – Peter Mokonotela / Zacks Nkosi
Tenor Sax – Timothy Ndaba / Mackay Davashe
Baritone Sax – Valley Ngwenya / Conny Khumalo

Gideon Nxumalo was a key figure during the formative years of South African jazz in the 1950s, helping shape the emerging South African jazz sound as a pianist and composer and contributing to the scene as a radio presenter, music teacher and arranger. His recorded output as bandleader/composer is comprised of three iconic albums from Jazz Fantasia (1962) to Gideon Plays (1968) to Early-Mart (1970).

Early-Mart was Gideon Nxumalo's tribute to his friend and musical compatriot, drummer Early Mabuza (Castle Lager Big Band, Mankunku Quartet), who died in 1969. Nxumalo assembled what journalist and observer Leslie Sehume reports was a 14-piece band for the album, which was recorded during a legendary overnight session in February 1970 and released just months before Nxumalo's own death on 24 December 1970.

Opening the album is the 15-minute title suite "Early-Mart," a journey through the life of Early Mabuza that is epic in scope and varied in form and that reconciles moments of great joy with others of deep pathos. As a precursor to our 50th anniversary vinyl repressing of the album and its full digital release, we present the composition's two distinct musical parts accompanied by an archival portrait of Early Mabuza from 1970 by artist Winston Saoli.

Produced by Rashid Vally, Early-Mart (KRS 107) was released on Soultown Records, which would evolve into As-Shams/The Sun in 1974. It was Vally's first foray into avant-garde South African jazz and would lead to his label's fertile relationship with Abdullah Ibrahim (recording as Dollar Brand). Winston Saoli's painting was not used for the original release of Early-Mart in 1970 but his work does appear on Dollar Brand + 2 - Peace (KRS 110) in 1971.

A landmark album in the history of South African jazz – a set that marks a real shift in the way the music was put together, and maybe a new sort of sophistication that would really mark the scene in years to come! The album's not the first recording from pianist Gideon Nxumalo, but it definitely represents a shift in his sound – longer tracks that often have a slow-building sense of shape and spirit, as the more rhythmic modes of earlier years are opened up and relaxed in favor of some of the larger sound of the tracks and solo space. Yet if you're worried about the record not having a groove, don't fret, as there's plenty of that in here too – just in ways that really make the album stand out strongly in a modern jazz idiom. The session details have been lost to the shifting sands of time, but in addition to Gideon's piano, there's guitar, alto, tenor, trumpet, and flute on the record.

Gideon Nxumalo - 1968 - Gideon Plays

Gideon Nxumalo

1968

Gideon Plays

01. Dimple

02. Welele

03. Lonesome Lover

04. Coffee Break

05. Nto Speaks

06. Rondo

07. Ingoma - The Song

08. Isintu

Bass – Maurice 'Nto' Manana

Drums – Gordon Mfandu

Electric Piano, Harpsichord, Organ, Piano – Nxumalo

Flute – Dennis Nene

Organ, Piano – Masdorph 'Shakes' Mgudlwa

Tenor Saxophone – Mackay Davashe

Gideon Nxumalo’s Gideon Plays might just be the most mythologised and sought-after LP in the whole South African canon. A sophisticated bop excursion with a distinctive African edge, it was only Nxumalo’s second LP as leader, despite his crucial place in South African jazz history.

Pianist Nxumalo was a visionary jazz composer who had recorded regularly during the 1950s, and his 1962 Jazz Fantasia album was the first South African jazz recording to incorporate traditional African musical sources and instruments. But he was also the country’s most significant radio presenter and jazz tastemaker – from 1954 onwards, he had worn the nickname ‘Mgibe’ to introduce ‘This Is Bantu Jazz’, South African radio’s premier jazz show.

But in the aftermath of the Sharpeville Massacre in 1961, Nxumalo had been sidelined from radio play, and was eventually sacked for playing records with political meanings. By 1968, he had not been heard on record or airwave for several years. Gideon Plays was a celebrated return to the studio for one of South Africa’s best loved and most forward-thinking jazzmen, and it showcases Nxumalo’s deep understanding of jazz, his brilliant touch as a composer, and his commitment to bringing South Africa’s indigenous sound into the music.

However, it was released on the tiny JAS Pride label owned by production impresario Ray Nkwe, and after one pressing in 1968, Gideon Plays fell into the undeserved silence that has obscured so much of the South African jazz discography. It has since become a legend: hardly more than a rumour, it has been bootlegged by the unscrupulous, changed hands for eye-watering sums, and has scarcely been heard outside the circles of the most committed South African jazz devotees. It goes without saying that it has never been released outside South Africa, and even now only a handful of original copies are known to have survived.

Over the last ten years, Matsuli Music has been proud to present some of the greatest lost and found jazz recordings in South African history – but we have never presented a rarer, lesser known album than the mighty Gideon ‘Mgibe’ Nxumalo’s Gideon Plays.