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 […]
The SN Project – Afrikanization
https://amf.didiermary.fr/sn-project-afrikanization/
Siphephelo Ndlovu (The SN Project) is a pianist and vocalist from South Africa. In 2020, his debut album titled “Afrikanization” was released, incorporating structures of the jazz language, blended with rich harmonies reminiscent of the isiZulu culture of South Africa.
Douala by Night
https://amf.didiermary.fr/douala-by-night/
“Douala by Night” est un excellent AfroJazzFunk de la fin des années 70, dernière piste de l’album “J.M. Tim & Foty” de Jean Marie Tiam (aka Tim) et Maurice Foty (décédé en 2011). L’album est paru en 1977. […]
Kokoroko – Abusey Junction
https://amf.didiermary.fr/kokoroko-abusey-junction-we-out-here/
Released in 2018, “Abusey Junction” is the first record track of 8-piece band, London-based jazz collective Kokoroko.
“We Out Here” is a primer on London’s bright-burning young jazz scene. This new compilation brings together a collection of some of its sharpest talents. A set of nine newly-recorded tracks, We Out Here captures a moment where […]
Nobuhle Ashanti – Bait For Steps Forward
https://amf.didiermary.fr/nobuhle-ashanti-bait-for-steps-forward/
Nobuhle Ashanti is a pianist, composer, and recording artist from Cape Town, South Africa. Her debut album – “Bait for Steps Forward” (released in March 2023) – features a wide variety of Cape Town’s leading poets, instrumentalists and vocalists. […]
Next Stop Soweto
https://amf.didiermary.fr/next-stop-soweto-compilations/
“Next Stop Soweto” is a compilation series, to remember an era of South Africa’s musical history where such genres as Funk and Soul were being played by bands even as apartheid firmly gripped the country’s music culture.
Volume 1 explores the vibrant energy of the township jive sound, whilst Volumes 2 and 3 cover [...]
#60smusic #70smusic #80smusic #AfroFunk #Apartheid #Compilation #Jazz #Mbaqanga #SouthAfrica #AfroJazz
Oratorio of a Forgotten Youth
https://amf.didiermary.fr/oratorio-of-a-forgotten-youth/
Inspiré par le travail de grands musiciens comme Jonas Gwangwa et son Amandla Cultural Ensemble, qui a accompli un travail politique important pendant la longue lutte pour l’autodétermination qu’a connue l’Afrique du Sud, l’Amandla Freedom Ensemble est un jalon important pour la tradition du jazz sud-africain. [...]
Hugh Masekela – Night In Tunisia
https://amf.didiermary.fr/hugh-masekela-night-in-tunisia/
“Night in Tunisia” est l’un des morceaux extraits d’une compilation dédiée à Hugh Masekela “Township Grooves”, qui reprend des compositions datant des années 1965 à 1974.
C’est bien sûr une reprise de Dizzy Gillespie “A Night in Tunisia”, ici en live en 1981. […]
Siya Makuzeni Sextet – Out of This World
https://amf.didiermary.fr/siya-makuzeni-sextet-out-this-world/
Siya Makuzeni is a professional South African trombone player, vocalist, lyricist and songwriter regularly collaborating with other reknown South African musicians. She’s known for her extensive musical range, vocal dexterity, experimental creativity, and passion for symbiotic cross-genre influences.
Thandi Ntuli – Blk Elijah
https://amf.didiermary.fr/thandi-ntuli-blk-elijah/
“Blk Elijah & The Children of Meroë” is the 5th release and 3rd studio album by South African Jazz pianist Thandi Ntuli.
Through her work over a hitherto 13-year career, Thandi has carved space for herself, and others seeking home, to fully exist – thereby firmly situating herself and the contemporary South African generation in […]
Osibisa, the “Flying Elephants”
https://amf.didiermary.fr/osibisa-flying-elephants/
Osibisa is a British Afro-pop band, founded by Teddy Osei (RIP) in London in 1969 by four expatriate African (Ghana) and three Caribbean musicians. Osibisa were one of the first African bands to become widely popular, leading to claims of founding World Music.
I discovered Osibisa when I was a teen, and this band is […]
Etuk Ubong – Africa Today
https://amf.didiermary.fr/etuk-ubong-africa-today/
Reflecting the urgency of his messages, Etuk Ubong’s fast-paced channelling of Afrobeat, highlife, and jazz – encompassing echoes of Ellingtonian intricacy, blue period Miles, Coltrane transcendence, the roots rebirth of Masekela – all inspired by the ancestral ever-presence of Ekombi ritual drumming, creates a unique confluence of musical and spiritual questing. [...]
Island Jazz from the Indian Ocean
https://amf.didiermary.fr/island-jazz-indian-ocean/
Island Jazz Feat. Monika Njava (voice – the Diva of Madagascar) & Linley Marthe (bass – Mauritius)
Manipule-Nareo: the song recounts the manipulation and crimes committed by foreigners during the colonial period.
“The Island Jazz quartet reworks traditional melodies with modern harmonies. And twists irresistible rhythms like tsapiky and jihe into [...]
Soriba Kouyate – Kanakassi (1999)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/soriba-kouyate-kanakassi-1999/
Soriba Kouyate was a Senegalese Kora virtuoso (Korafola). Just before his death in 2010, he played in the Kora Jazz Band, after Djeli Moussa Diawara left the Kora Jazz Trio.
He played with musicians like Youssou N’Dour, Salif Keita, Peter Gabriel, Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Belafonte, Toure Kunda, etc.
Coltrane Quartet – Africa/Brass
https://amf.didiermary.fr/coltrane-quartet-africa-brass/
Africa/Brass is the eighth studio album by jazz musician John Coltrane (Coltrane Quartet), released on Impulse! Records on September 1, 1961.
Its big band sound, with the unusual instrumentation of French horns and euphonium, presented music very different from anything that had been associated with Coltrane to date.
Remembering Pharoah Sanders
https://amf.didiermary.fr/pharoah-sanders-africa/
Africa is an album led by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders (born Farrell Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022), recorded in 1987.
Hugh Masekela – Grazing in the Grass (live)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/hugh-masekela-grazing-grass/
Grazing in the Grass for the Fifa Worldcup closing ceremony in 2010. For those who like a lot of cowbells in their music…
The song is found on Masekela‘s 8th studio album: “The Promise of a Future” in 1968. […]
Group Theory Black Music
https://amf.didiermary.fr/tumi-mogorosi-group-theory-black-music/
“The Group Theory Black Music” documentary follows the creative process, and intentions between drummer Tumi Mogorosi and the many collaborators on the album.
Since his international debut on Jazzman Records in 2014 with Project ELO, Mogorosi has been in the vanguard of the South African creative music scene’s burgeoning outernational dimension, [...]
#Documentary #LiveMusic #SouthAfrica #AfroJazz #AvantGarde #Opera #Jazz
Linda Sikhakhane – Isambulo
https://amf.didiermary.fr/linda-sikhakhane-isambulo/
Linda Sikhakhane is a musician, improviser and composer born in Umlazi, a township in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. His roots are located in KwaNongoma where Sikhakhane cites his upbringing soundtracks into his modern journey. This is predominantly a rural area which is better known as the home of King Goodwill Zwelithini, the late hereditary traditional leader […]
The Jazz Epistles – Verse 1
https://amf.didiermary.fr/the-jazz-epistles-vary-oo-vum/
Verse 1 by the Jazz Epistles in 1960 is “a genuine hard bop session, swinging and persuasive, coming out of South Africa in an era when black musicians weren’t making any recordings, let alone forward-looking modern jazz albums.”
[They] were South Africa’s first important (albeit short-lived) bebop band, inspired by Art Blakey [...]
#60smusic #AbdullahIbrahim #HughMasekela #Jazz #SouthAfrica #AfroJazz
Batsumi (1974)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/batsumi-apartheid/
Many years after the fall of Apartheid, Batsumi remains sublime… and transformative, and its resonance hasn’t faded at all over the years.
During the brutal era in South African history known as Apartheid, the minority-white ruling party forcibly moved millions of black South Africans from their homes to segregated areas, stripping them of their citizenship […]
#70smusic #Apartheid #FullAlbum #SouthAfrica #AfroJazz #Jazz
Dee Dee Bridgewater – Un voyage Malien
https://amf.didiermary.fr/dee-dee-bridgewater-voyage-malien/
L’album Red Earth – A Malian Journey de Dee Dee Bridgewater est sorti en 2007, mais un article sur Cheick Tidiane Seck (qui fut au cœur de ce projet) me l’a remis dans l’oreille.
J’ai découvert Dee Dee Bridgewater, comme beaucoup, avec le duo de 1989 “Precious thing” où elle accompagne Ray Charles et l’album […]
