JISA Records

16/06/2017

A unique opportunity to hear Bra Tete Mbambisa, one of the elder statesmen of South African jazz, in a programme of Mbambisa originals arranged for his SA-UK Big Sound.

Bra Tete is joined by fellow South Africans, saxophonist Bra Barney Rachabane (Hugh Masekela and Paul Simon) and drummer Ayanda Sikade (Zim Ngqawana and Thandiswa Mazwai).

Playing alongside this all-star South African line-up are three outstanding British artists, Julian Arguelles (tenor), Chris Batchelor (trumpet) and Steve Watts (bass). All three have been heavily influenced by exiled South African jazz musicians in London; now significant stylists in their own right they perform in South Africa for the first time.

The SA-UK BIG SOUND 2017 tour launches a brand new Mbambisa album: ‘One for Asa’ recorded in the UK in 2015.

TOUR DATES:

4 July: The Orbit - Home of Jazz (Braamfontein, Johannesburg)
20:00 | R150 | tel: 081 53 42 867
http://www.theorbit.co.za/

5 July: Soweto Theatre (Soweto, Johannesburg)
20:00 | R120 | tel: 0861 670 670
http://www.sowetotheatre.com/

7 July: Miriam Makeba Centre for Performing Arts (East London)
19:30 | R100 | tickets on the door | tel: 073 644 0200

9 July: The Rainbow (Pinetown, Durban)
https://www.therainbow.co.za/
http://www.webtickets.co.za/event.aspx?itemid=409794326
doors open 13:00 | R100 | tel: 031 702 9161

12 July: Isivivana Centre (Khayelitsha, Cape Town)
https://isivivanacentre.org.za/
19:00 | R100 | tickets on the door | tel: 073 644 0200

(image of Bra Tete by A***n Kaganof )

21/05/2017

One of the bands that Tat'uJohnny Dyani spoke of to A***n Kaganof was Dick Khoza's Jazz Wizards. In this picture published in the 10 October 1962 issue of Imvo Zabantsundu the Wizards are Dick Khoza (drums), Mongezi Feza (trumpet), Johnny Dyani (bass) and Fats Mbambisa (piano).

Dick Khoza went on to record the seminal album 'Chapita' in 1976 - reissued by Matthew Temple and Chris Albertyn via Matsuli - whilst two years after this photo was taken Feza and Dyani had left South Africa for exile with The Blues Notes.

According to Lars Rasumussen pianist / bassist Fats Mbambisa - brother to the legendary pianist and composer Tete Mbambisa - often formed trios with Johnny Dyani when a drummer was available.

The original caption in Imvo read:

Ngasentla: Nalo iqela likaMnu. Dick Khoza lodumo kwezentambula phaya eMonti elaziwa ngokuba zi"Jazz Wizards". Apho livuthela khona alibadudisi abasakazi lisus'ama'khadibhodi'. Kutsha nje likhe layakudlala phaya eBhayi wkisikhumbuzo sikamfi Victor S. Mkize. Ukusuka ngasekhohlo nguMnu. D. Khoza (dr), Mongezi Feza (tpt), Johnny Dyani (bass) kunye noFats Mbambisa (pn).

Read the full Johnny Dyani interview by A***n Kaganof here:

http://kaganof.com/kagablog/2010/04/07/aryan-kaganof-interviews-johnny-mbizo-dyani/

Lars Rasmussen's essay "When Man and Bass Became One. Johnny Dyani 1947-1986" mentioning Fats Mbambisa's work with Johnny Dyani can be found here:

http://www.booktrader.dk/pdf/WHEN%20MAN%20AND%20BASS%20BECAME%20ONE.%20MARCH%202015.pdf

(with Lindiwe Mbambisa, Phila Mbambisa, Given Jikwana, Siphokazi Ngxokolo, Naniwe Mtshemla, Gregory Franz, Retsi P**e)

13/05/2017

RIP Tat' uSamuel Tshiyembe.

Legendary vocal group The Slo Foot King Brothers as pictured in Imvo Zabantsundu in April 1963. Left to Right founding members Adnijah Magalela, Alton Mpisi, and Tat' uSamuel Tshiyembe, who has passed aged 87.

The group's original name was Hayi Khona, but when it was decided that the name wasn't right, each member of the group was tasked with thinking up an alternative. Alton Mpisi came up with the name Slo Foot King Brothers, saying that it meant slow but sure - a reflection of his view of the group. (Daily Dispatch, 2005).

Speaking to the Daily Dispatch in 2014 Tat' uSamuel said "I want to go join my late brothers, I know they went somewhere beautiful and I want to be with them again."

Tat' uSamuel can be seen singing and showcasing his moves in a Daily Dispatch video from 2014:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ3Z-j0Jpxo

RIP Tat' uSamuel Tshiyembe (1930-2017)

02/03/2017

Sad to report that High Fidelity in Killarney Mall (Jhb) are closing down soon. Rui and the team consistently supported local musicians and independent releases and sold many copies of Bra Tete Mbambisa's 'Black Heroes'.

Another body blow. Shortly after news of The African MUsic Store calling time in Cape Town we learn that High Fidelity in Killarney Mall, Johannesburg are closing down. Thanks to Rui and the team for **being independent** and supporting local artists over the years.

18/02/2017

Lots of plans cooking with Bra Tete for future releases and gigs.

Pianist and composer Bra Tete Mbambisa in conversation with Given Jikwana yesterday. Stay tuned for more news on this conversation covering Bra Tete's career and musical process.

Image from footage by A***n Kaganof for South African Jazz Cultures and the Archive.

11/02/2017

From the recording session of Bra Tete Mbambisa's forthcoming album... keep tuned.

Searching for THE angle... with A***n Kaganof, Julian Arguelles, Steve Watts and Gilbert Matthews at University of York 11 September 2015

During the recording session for Bra Tete Mbambisa's UK-SA Big Sound as part of South African Jazz Cultures and the Archive. More news on this recording coming soon.

L-R: Steve Watts (bass), Julian Argüelles (tenor), Gilbert Matthews (drums) A***n Kaganof (flat on his back).

(with Given Jikwana, Eugene Skeef, Sazi Dlamini, Nduduzo Makhathini, Kyle Shepherd)

09/02/2017

Inspired by Bra Retsi P**e's comment yesterday that "'Jazz In South Africa' is about our Historical Inputs in this artform, as South African Jazz Artists" here's a cutting from Imvo Zabantsundu's 'Nite Life Diary' from Saturday March 30th, 1968.

'It has been a long time since we listened to the pulsating voice of Mike "Ray" P**e, who churns out jazz numbers with ease and joy. Now at last on Saturday Mike "Ray" P**e will sing at the Zwelitsha Community Centre near King William's Town.' (pg.7)

The Imvo Team report that this performance was part of Jazz Festival to be held on 30 March 1968, and organised by the Ginsberg Amateur Music and Dramatic Society to celebrate it's birthday. One of the members of the society organising the festival was Mr. Major Sihunu. Other artists to be featured were The All Star Band, The Supremes, and Custa Hashe.

Thanks for your input Bra Retsi.

08/02/2017

Staying with the Zacks Nkosi theme, two very different albums from different decades with (almost) the same name. These screen grabs are from Siemon Allen's essential flatinternational site. Check it out. Has there ever been a more beautiful discographical enterprise?

http://flatinternational.org/

(There's a surprising connection between this Bra Zacks post and the photo from that I posted earlier...)

08/02/2017

An ad in Drum gives the latest sounds for February... 1955. Some familiar names here - two of Zacks Nkosi's bands (Zacks and His Sextet, and City Jazz Nine), as well as Ellison Temba's much recorded African Swingsters - which also often featured Zacks Nkosi. All well worth a bit of listening on YouTube...

More difficult to check out are the Chisa Ramblers, led by Johnson ‘Posie’ Sello. According to Max Mojapelo (in 'Beyond Memory' pg.270) The Chisa Ramblers were a dance band from Benoni, and were the inspiration behind Bra Hugh Masekela naming his record company Chisa Records. Gwen Ansell has them slightly down the road in Germiston ('Soweto Blues' pg.45), and David Coplan (in 'The Concise Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 1') states that in the 1950s:

"Many songs engagingly combined American and African melodic and rhythmic motifs. An important aspect of this process occurred in the late hours of live shows, when players would put away their American sheet music and 'let go.' A more marabi-based, African jazz took over, and the brass, reeds, and piano took improvised solo choruses over a pulsating beat. Not all audiences adored American popular culture, and many patrons demanded from the bandsmen a more local jazz idiom. Some bands, like the Chisa Ramblers, specialised in "backyard" party engagements, for which they supplied marabi." (pg.116)

For the other artists I need to appeal to the collective wisdom. Any knowledge gratefully received. The only reference I found online was to the Nongoma Trio - a couple of mp3s for download / streaming of 'Mamuriba' and 'Intomba Lala Kaniani.' Well worth a listen:

http://www.amoeba.com/mamuriba-intomba-lala-kaniani-nongoma-trio/albums/1650775/

There is a bit of sobering context four pages further on in the February 1955 issue of Drum:

"The first sixty families in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, have been given orders to leave their houses, and have been offered accommodation in the new location of Meadowlands. 'You are hereby required in terms of the Native Resettlement Act 1954 to vacate the premises in which you reside...' The first date given is February 12th."

A stark reminder of the circumstances under which a lot of music was made 1950s South Africa.

08/02/2017

As the British Academy Newton Advanced Fellowship funded project 'South African Jazz Cultures and the Archive' moves into it's final stage the time has come to start sharing some of the resources, images and sounds gathered during the project. Not with a view to ending, but as a launch pad for future plans, discussions, and music.

But first some long overdue welcomes and thank yous. Thank you Atiyyah Khan and Thando Njovane - seems you got here first!

Image L-R: Bra Tete Mbambisa, Mam' uVuyiswa Ngcwangu, Bra Gilbert Mattews. University of York, UK, 7 September 2015 (photo - Hannah Bruce

23/09/2016

It begins...

And then you become aware of the silence that must precede everything. You learn to see the emptiness; a dark space in a photograph, a shadow on the march of time, the deaf break between notes, the lapses and gaps of collective public recollections. This is the absence of musicians now too far gone to speak; men too dead to remember for themselves. Then there are the fading memories of friends and families too traumatised to be troubled with reminiscing. Who will remember them now? On piano? Lionel Pillay, dead! On bass? Agrippa Magwaza, dead! On drums? Early Mabuza, dead! On tenor saxophone, Winston Mankunku Ngozi, dead! How do we remember them now? We have only their living absences, a darkness stretching over memories like a pall.

You wonder about the many nights and days they spent honing their skills to articulate a healing we all know was needed. What of the nights spent sleeping on cold floors in random homes or holes? What of the countrywide tours they went on to blow horns to keep us from falling apart? What of the cold iron bars and the bang of police van doors. The hand cuffs that were always so painfully tight and stiff, like chains meant to shackle the soul of man. What of the constant dodging of pass laws? Who remembers the gaping mouths of racist cops? The howling and hackling, the spit, the emasculation, the urge to flee and the refusal to leave, the exile of home, the neglect, the hysteria... was it the rhythmic convulsions of a hope refusing to die?

These were the beginnings that gave way to the music, insistent, bold and ebullient; the music hanging over the silence like a cloud. It is alive. Like death. Like hope. Like the unique smell of a person's body in their empty home. The music is a reminder. After the silence, it comes on and it remains.

Percy Mabandu. 'Yakhal'inkomo: Portrait of a jazz classic' (2016,
DASH-Art Media). pg.11-12

07/09/2016

Young Lion and the Legend