Nduduzo Makhathini – Amathambo
https://amf.didiermary.fr/nduduzo-makhathini-amathambo-ikhambi/
South-African pianist & healer Nduduzo Makhathini will release his next albums on Blue Note Records.
Award-winning pianist, improvisor, healer and scholar from South Africa. A recipient of prestigious awards such as the Standard Bank Young Artist Award, multiple South African Music Award (SAMA) and AFRIMA among others that have made him an influential figure. [...]
Benjamin Jephta - Homecoming Revisited
Feat. Siya Makuzeni, Marcus Wyatt, Sisonke Xonti, Mthunzi Mvubu, Llewelyn George, Damian Kamineth
https://benjaminjephta.bandcamp.com/album/homecoming-revisited
More on AMF: https://amf.didiermary.fr/benjamin-jephta-quintet-homecoming/
The Boy’s Doin’ It (1975)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/boys-doin-it-1975-masekela-fela-kuti/
The Boy’s Doin’ It is the 17th studio album by South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, recorded in New York City and in Lagos, and released in June 1975.
So many incredible musicians on one album, dedicated to Fela Kuti and the women of the world: Okyerema Asante, Orlando Julius, the rhythm brothers Stanley & Frankie Todd, [...]
#FelaKuti #HughMasekela #Jazz #OrlandoJulius #SouthAfrica #AfroJazz
Balimaya Project – Wolo So
https://amf.didiermary.fr/balimaya-project-soninka-patronba/
The Balimaya Project is a collective of 16 musicians in UK (including members of Kokoroko and Seed Ensemble), fusing traditional Mandingo music with Jazz.
The Balimaya Project synthesizes and bridges London’s bustling jazz circuit with traditional repertoire and folklore of the Mandé peoples of West Africa.
Bixiga 70 – Quebra Cabeça
https://amf.didiermary.fr/bixiga70-quebra-cabeca/
São Paulo’s acclaimed 10-piece instrumental collective released their 4th album in 2018, “Quebra Cabeça”.
Urban Afro-Brazilian grooves, empowered horn-driven melodicism and massive dance floor inspiration.One of South America’s most exhilarating musical propositions. Almost four centuries after the first slave ships loaded their cargoes and set sail, the connection between [...]
Mombasa – Kenia (remixed)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/mombasa-kenia-remixed/
Essential and hard to find album with tons of true killer Afro Funk breaks.
Classic and sought after Afro Jazz Reissue of original debut LP by African jazz band “Mombasa” led by Lou Blackburn and recorded in 1975 at Cornet studio […]
Hugh Masekela & The Union of South Africa
https://amf.didiermary.fr/hugh-masekela-union-south-africa/
Jonas Gwangwa (1937 – 2021) was a genius trombone player from Soweto, South Africa. That’s him in the middle between 2 other South African geniuses, the late Hugh Masekela on the left, and Caiphus Semenya (born 1939), on the right, for their band Union of South Africa.
The album, released in May 1971, is […]
Oneness of Juju – Poo Too
https://amf.didiermary.fr/oneness-of-juju-poo-too/
Plunky & Oneness of Juju is the name of a rhythm & blues-African-jazz-funk band from Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.
The group, originally known as Juju, was founded in San Francisco in 1971 and has continued to evolve for over 30 years, performing and recording with changes in personnel and under different group names, but always led […]
Kibrom Birhane – Here And There
https://amf.didiermary.fr/kibrom-birhane-here-there/
Is Kibrom Birhane the future of Ethiopian jazz?
He has a deep connection to the past and a vision for the future. His keyboard playing and improvisation reaches the deepest depths of the cosmos inside an unlimited musical universe.
Summer 2022 marks the release of Here And There, the new album by the critically acclaimed […]
Nubiyan Twist – Jungle Run
https://amf.didiermary.fr/nubiyan-twist-jungle-run/
Now one of the leading lights in the UK’s new generation of soulful, genre-fluid artists, Nubiyan Twist, the Leeds-born and now London-based 10-piece collective have created their finest recordings to date, effortlessly weaving together elements of jazz, soul, hip hop, African styles, Latin, dub, hip hop and electronics in a flow of thought-provoking and [...]
iPhupho L’ka Biko – Azania EP
https://amf.didiermary.fr/iphupho-lka-biko-azania-ep/
iPhupho L’ka Biko describe themselves as “children of Biko” and their music as Afrikanist Experimental Jazz. Azania is their first EP.
In the bustling city of Johannesburg, black classical music comes alive through the sounds of the powerful experimental jazz group, iPhupho L’ka Biko. Emerging from the influential student movements of 2015-2016, this group has […]
Mulatu Astatke & Black Jesus Experience – Kulun Mankwaleshi
https://amf.didiermary.fr/mulatu-astatke-black-jesus-experience-kulun-mankwaleshi/
Mulatu Astatke blends his Ethio-jazz with the Melbourne-based group Black Jesus Experience in this extract from their album “To Know Without Knowing” in 2020.
Kulun Mankwaleshi is the arrangement of a traditional Ethiopian wedding song in the uniquely Ethiopian anchi-hoye scale. Both polyrhythmic and polymetric [...]
The Chisa Years (1965-1975)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/the-chisa-years-1965-1975/
The Chisa Years: 1965–1975 (Rare and Unreleased) is a compilation album by South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela.
The album consists of 14 rare or forgotten tracks recorded by Stewart Levine and Hugh Masekela from 1965 to 1975 when they ran their own Chisa Records label. […]
#60smusic #70smusic #Compilation #HughMasekela #SouthAfrica #AfroJazz
Miriam Makeba & Hugh Masekela – Soweto Blues
https://amf.didiermary.fr/miriam-makeba-hugh-masekela-soweto-blues/
Freedom song! Soweto Blues, released in 1977, is a protest song written by Hugh Masekela and performed by Miriam Makeba.
The song is about the Soweto uprising that occurred in 1976, following the decision by the apartheid government of South Africa to make Afrikaans a medium of instruction [...]
#Apartheid #Documentary #HughMasekela #Jazz #Madiba #MiriamMakeba #SouthAfrica #AfroJazz
Balimaya Project – For Aziz Feat. Afronaut Zu
https://amf.didiermary.fr/balimaya-project-aziz-afronaut-zu/
The first track from album “When The Dust Settles”, “For Aziz” features Afronaut Zu with Balimaya Project.
See also “Seasons of Baraka” the promo single released a few weeks before.
If Balimaya Project’s debut album emphasised tradition & culture in a collective sense, their second album “When The Dust Settles” addresses the emotional and […]
Blue Lab Beats – Motherland Journey
https://amf.didiermary.fr/blue-lab-beats-motherland-journey/
Blue Lab Beats are a London-based music duo, nominated since 2021 for multiple awards. They won a Grammy award in 2022 for their production on Angelique Kidjo’s Mother Nature. Their third album was released in February 2022 on Blue Note Records, and recorded in Ghana with Killbeatz. […]
Hailu Mergia – Yene Mircha
https://amf.didiermary.fr/hailu-mergia-yene-mircha-choice/
Yene Mircha is an album by Hailu Mergia released in 2019.
It’s been a long, winding road to Hailu Mergia’s sixth decade of musical activity. From a young musician in the 60s starting out in Addis Ababa to the 70s golden age of dance bands to the new hope as an emigre in America to […]
Bantu Spaceship
https://amf.didiermary.fr/bantu-spaceship/
Bantu Spaceship will have listeners embark on a journey. A journey that feels like you are being taken through a portal into another time, Afrofuturism.
Joshua Madalitso Chiundiza, the craftsman behind sound production, is no stranger to providing out-of-this-world audio scenes, while Ulenni Okandlovu serves as the voice guiding us by way of Ndebele chants, […]
Somi revisits Pata Pata
https://amf.didiermary.fr/somi-revisits-pata-pata/
This cover of Pata Pata is from "Zenzile, The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba," released, at the end of 2022, in which Somi reinterprets 17 songs of Mama Africa with a jazzy approach. At regular intervals, we hear excerpts from an interview with Mama Africa who explains in no uncertain terms what apartheid is. Somi brought […]
#Jazz #MiriamMakeba #Rwanda #SouthAfrica #Uganda #AfroJazz #Apartheid
Section Jazz de l’Orchestre National du Sénégal – Xanju Ou Tutu
https://amf.didiermary.fr/section-jazz-orchestre-national-senegal-xanju-ou-tutu/
An homage to Miles Davis, by “Jazz On”, part of Orchestre National du Sénégal (ONS) in 2012.
If you’ve never seen/heard a N’goni played in a Jazz Ensemble…
The Past Is Unpredictable, Only the Future Is Certain
https://amf.didiermary.fr/past-unpredictable-only-future-certain-vuma-levin/
Vuma Levin is a multi-award-winning guitar player and one of the leading talents in South African jazz.
In September 2021, Vuma Levin achieved a major milestone in his career when he was named the Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz, a coveted award […]
Ayanda Sikade – Umakhulu
https://amf.didiermary.fr/ayanda-sikade-umakhulu/
Though he’s been a crucial figure in South African jazz for years, drummer Ayanda Sikade is only now achieving the recognition he’s long deserved—something one could say about the South African scene as a whole, given the increased worldwide profile it’s begun to enjoy in the last few years. His second album as a leader […]
Spirits Rejoice – Electric Chicken
https://amf.didiermary.fr/spirits-rejoice-electric-chicken/
Spirits Rejoice drew together some of South Africa’s most abundantly talented and forward-thinking jazz players and created a complex and challenging jazz fusion that shifted the terms of South Africa’s engagement with jazz towards new music being made by pioneers such as Chick Corea, Weather Report, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny and others. [...]
Zoe Modiga – Inganekwane
https://amf.didiermary.fr/zoe-modiga-lengoma-tubatsi-mpho-moloi/
Inganekwane (“Zulu fairytale”), the second album by Zoe Modiga, released in 2020, is inspired by the theme of self-reflection to reveal messages of identity.
Zoe Modiga born and raised in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, is the quintessential artist who represents the present and future of South African music. Drawing from the human experience, identity and […]
Holy Forest – Africa Calling
https://amf.didiermary.fr/holy-forest-africa-calling/
Holy Forest is a musical project from songwriter and documentary filmmaker Jon Fine (Herbie Hancock's "Possibilities"), who recorded an album over 3 years across the Gambia and several cities in the United States. “Africa Calling,” the lead single from the self-titled LP, pairs the virtuosic sounds of Gambian griot Tata Din Din Jobarteh with the robust vocals of […]
