Allen Kwela - 1975 - Black Beauty

Allen Kwela

1975

Black Beauty

01. Black Beauty 7:03
02. Mild Storm 8:08
03. Qaphela 6:45
04. Willow Vale 10:35

sax: Kippie Moeketsi
sax: Barney Rachabane
trumpet: Dennis Mpale
drums: Gilbert Matthews
bass: Sipho Gumede
guitar: Allen Kwela

'The cream of Johannesburg’s jazz musicians gathered at state-of-the-art Satbel studios to create Black Beauty for the “Soweto” label. Led by guitarist extraordinaire Allen Kwela and featuring the godfather of South African jazz Kippie Moeketsi, the album successfully straddles producer pressure to emulate the commercial success of Abdullah Ibrahim’s Mannenberg, against the musicians’ own impetus to play a jazz they wanted. While the title track “Black Beauty” nods at Ibrahim’s stylings, the magic happens in the three remaining tracks where Kwela and his top-notch band lay down new directions.

Producer Patric van Blerk, sounded disappointed when asked about the sessions, saying that Kwela was his usual strong-willed self, unwilling to be nudged towards the pop trends of the day. “He was a monster talent and deserved much more than he got at the time.”

Recorded in one day in 1975 in Johannesburg’s Satbel Studios and released that year on the Soweto label, guitarist and composer Allen Kwela’s ‘Black Beauty’ is a thrillingly accomplished album that more than testifies to the assuredness of African jazz from that era and beyond.

Although exact recording details are sketchy, four extremely strong original tunes are played by an octet of musicians said to include the legendary alto sax player – and Abdullah Ibrahim collaborator – Kippie Moeketsi, alongside fellow saxophonist Barney Rachabane, trumpeter Dennis Mpale and drummer Gilbert Matthews, among others

While Kwela – who, born in 1939, hailed from Natal, made his name in Durban and died of an apparent asthma attack in 2003 – has been described as the Wes Montgomery of South African jazz, there’s more kinship with George Benson here, especially on the opening track of Side 2, Quaphela, whose chiming, bell-like tone in the solo anticipates the iconic smooth-strut of Benson’s ‘Breezin’’. The thick, chunky chordal flow, alternating rhythm and lead, can also call to mind the Jamaican master Ernest Ranglin, and the percussive effects of the late great South African guitarist-in-exile Lucky Madumetja Ranku.

But what is most impressive about Black Beauty is how fully-rounded the whole album is. There’s the hard-won grace of the very separate and distinctive tunes, where a funky and sometimes danceable township style shares space with memorable jazz themes, spirited ensemble playing and – as if he’s conducting from the back – the chugging guitar of Allen Kwela, keeping everything bubbling along and imposing itself only when necessary. It’s all good, but the title track has it all: a delicate solo guitar intro on a catchy folk melody that then provides a call and response for the band, with Kwela playing clustered repetitions of the theme against trumpet and sax solos before attacking the melody himself in a bluesy showcase of his solo chops. There’s a Hammond organ in there somewhere too.

A South African jazz session from the 70s, but one with a bit of a twist – as the instrumentation here is a bit larger than on some of the smaller combo sets of the time – in a way that gives guitarist Allen Kwela a really full, rich sort of backing! Kwela's solos are nicely laidback, and build strongly as the tunes stretch out – never really to be as tight or precise as a player like George Benson, even though he shares a similar sense of color – and with maybe some of the airiness of Sonny Greenwich at times. The set's filled with work from other all-star musicians – including Kippie Moeketsi and Barney Rachabane on saxes, Dennis Mpale on trumpet, and Sipho Gumede on bass.

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.

Pat Matshikiza - 1976 - Sikiza Matshikiza

Pat Matshikiza

1976

Sikiza Matshikiza

01. Sikiza Matshikiza 10:24

02. Datata (Auntie) 13:41

03. Dreams Are Wonderful 10:38

04. Durban Blues 13:26

Pat Matshikiza - Piano

Kippie Moeketsi - Alto Saxophone

Duke Makasi - Tenor Saxophone

George Tyefumani - Trumpet

Sandile Shange - Guitar

Sipho Gumede - Bass

Gilbert Mathews - Drums

Born in Queenstown in South Africa's Eastern Cape province in 1938, Patrick Vuyo Matshikiza was raised in a musical family. His uncle Todd Matshikiza was a jazz columnist for Drum Magazine in the 1950s and composed the music for King Kong - the all-black musical from 1958 that played in London's West End and launched the career of singer Mariam Makeba. Pat was educated at St. Mathews, an historic mission school in Keiskammahoek, where he played organ and graduated with a teacher's diploma. He migrated to Johannesburg in 1962 and joined the community of professional black musicians that orbited Dorkay House, headquarters of Union Artists and the African Music and Drama Association. It was here that Matshikiza was enlisted as a pianist for the Jazz Dazzlers, a big band led by esteemed saxophonist Mackay Davashe. Matshikiza would then go on to join the Early Mabuza Quartet, a group that shared first prize with the Malombo Jazz Man at the Castle Lager Jazz Festival in 1964.

Recording for the As-Shams/The Sun label in the 1970s, Pat Matshikiza released the collaborative album Tshona! with sax giant Kippie Moeketsi in 1975. The album was followed in 1976 by Sikiza Matshikza, Pat's solo debut with Moeketsi appearing as a featured artist. The personnel on the album were an early iteration of the group that would become Spirits Rejoice in 1977, with Duke Makasi on tenor sax, George Tyefumani on trumpet, Sipho Gumede on bass, Gilbert Mathews on drums and Sandile Shange (who appears alongside Matshikiza and Moeketsi on the album's cover photo) on guitar.

In the 1980s, Matshikiza withdrew from the jazz scene to pursue a more stable income as a resident pianist on the hotel circuit. He resurrected his jazz career in the 2000s, performing in Johannesburg clubs and releasing the live album Originals (2004) and retrospective album Seasons, Masks and Keys (2005). He retired in 2011 after suffering a stroke and his health steadily declined until his death in 2014. Pat Matshikiza's mid-70s recordings mark a high point in his career and are essential documents in the history of South African jazz on vinyl. With these reissues, we hope to bring his artistic legacy to prominence and share his work with lovers of jazz around the world.

Really creative work from the South African scene of the 70s – a jazz record, but one that was done at that moment when musicians on the scene were throwing so many other great elements into the mix as well – really moving past any conventions in standard jazz, to create some very memorable sounds of their own! There's currents of funk and blues in the music, and tracks are long and really stretch out with some relaxed interplay between the musicians, with plenty of room for solos.

Kippie Moketsi Featuring Hal Singer - 1977 - Blue Stompin

Kippie Moketsi Featuring Hal Singer

1977

Blue Stompin'

01. Blue Stompin' 11:19

02. Hang On There 06:39

03. Scrap Iron 10:53

04. Yes Baby 12:38

Personnel on Track 1:

Hal Singer - Tenor Sax

Kippie Moeketsi - Alto Sax

Oliver Johnson - Drums

August "Gus" Nemeth - Bass

Alain Jean Marie - Piano

Personnel on Track 2:

Kippie Moeketsi - Alto Sax

Duku Makasi - Tenor Sax

Pat Matshikiza - Piano

Sipho Gumede - Bass

Gilbert Mathews - Drums

Personnel on Tracks 3, 4:

Kippie Moeketsi - Alto Sax

Barney Rachabane - Alto Sax

Duku Makasi - Tenor Sax

Jabu Nkosi - Piano

Enock Mthaleni - Guitar

Sipho Gumede - Bass

Gilbert Mathews - Drums

Blue Stompin’, originally released on Rashid Vally’s As-Shams/The Sun label in South Africa in July 1977, is a tour-de-force meeting of two seemingly unlikely saxophone collaborators. Kippie ‘Morolong’ Moeketsi was a founder member of The Jazz Epistles, along with Abdullah Ibrahim (or Dollar Brand as he was known then), Jonas Gwangwa, and Hugh Masekela. Hal Singer was a veteran of Duke Ellington’s orchestra as well as stints with Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Jay McShann and Don Byas in the Be-bop era. In 1965, he emigrated to France and joined the sizeable contingent of Afro-American Jazz ex-pats who had made Paris their home. He is probably best known now for his 1969 Polydor album “Paris Soul Food”, on the back of which he toured extensively throughout Europe. In 1974 he went on a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of South Africa, which was the genesis for the 1977 Blue Stompin’ release; a 1974 session featuring Singer and Moeketsi which re-worked the title track of Singer's 1959 Prestige album with Charlie Shavers, (Blue Stompin' - Prestige 7153) as a bluesy workout with R&B overtones, but this time incorporating Moeketsi taking the place of Charlie Shavers in trading lively solos. Spirited covers of "Scrap Iron' by Charles Hodges, 'Hang On In There' by Duke Pearson and 'Yes Baby' by Kenny Burrell round out this straight-ahead set, albeit with a decidedly South African flavour.

Any release featuring South African alto saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi (1925-1983) is to be warmly welcomed. This is a reissue of a 1977 collaboration with the Paris-based Oklahoma-born tenor saxophonist Hal Singer (1919-2020) that has been unavailable for 40 years.

Often introduced as ‘Bra Joe from Kilimanjaro’ by his close friend Abdullah Ibrahim, Moeketsi was a member of the Jazz Epistles, the trailblazing 1950s band, alongside Ibrahim, Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa, who all stated many years later that Moeketsi was the foremost South African jazz musician of their generation. For someone of such influence and importance, his death in 1983 aged 58 after years of bitter frustration, alcoholism and injustice for him and his fellow musicians is a tragedy.

The album was produced by Rashid Vally, the owner of the Kohinoor record shop in Johannesburg, and the As-Shams (The Sun) record label, and who played a major role in giving a voice to modern jazz in South Africa. The new mastering by Noah Mintz is excellent, the vinyl sounds warm and pristine.

The key selection here is Blue Stompin’, the opener and title track, recorded with Singer and his band during their 1974 US State Department tour of South Africa. It’s a romping blues on the front foot as the title suggests, first recorded for Singer’s 1959 Prestige album with Charlie Shavers. On this version Moeketsi plays a long solo introduction before the piano of Alain Jean Marie brings in the familiar riff and double bassist Gus Nemeth and drummer Oliver Johnson kick off with Singer’s solo setting the pace. Marie’s piano follows with some style before Moeketsi starts stretching out, showing the influence of Charlie Parker but playing with a style very much his own. He plays well, if a little hesitantly at times, with the song fading right on the ending at 11:20 but it really doesn’t feel a second too long.

It was Singer and his band’s only contribution, as the rest of the album consists of three tunes with tenor saxophonist Duku Moketsi and a rhythm section of double bassist Sipho Gumede and drummer Gilbert Mathews. On Hang On There (in reality trumpeter Harold Baker’s Hang In There) the band are tight, together and the playing is superb with the wonderful Pat Matshikiza following the saxophone breaks with a fine piano solo.

The second side features two long blues tunes, Duke Pearson’s Scrap Iron and Kenny Burrell’s Yes Baby, with Jabu Nkosi now sitting in for Matsikiza on electric piano, plus guitarist Enoch Mthaleni and Barney Rachabane on alto saxophone. The horn arrangements are pure South Africa in accent and with both tracks at over 10 minutes each the soloists get plenty of room.

Although Blue Stompin’ is the album’s focal point, Moeketsi’s playing on the other three tracks is feels stronger and more creative with the energy flowing in the camaraderie provided by musicians he knew well. It’s a privilege to be able to hear this music and inspires one to discover more and learn from his story.