2010-06-14
Strut Records concludes a three-CD set of early South African music by highlighting that country's jazz musicians of the '60s, '70s and '80s. While many prominent artists fled South Africa for the safer and richer shores of the U.S. and Europe, these musicians stayed and kept jazz alive. Some interesting stuff here -- you can hear the roots of what Hugh Masekela wound up doing with "Grazin' in the Grass" in 1968. The Malombo cuts are the ones that fuse jazz and African rhythms the most extensively. That these artists could play so skillfully during a time of great repression is amazing. Such is the power of music. 06/10 Michael J.DAVE SIEBELS
With Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band
CHICK COREA & GARY BURTON
The New Crystal Silence
BRUCE KAPHAN QUARTET
Bruce Kaphan Quartet
BEN Wanicur
The Excluded Middle
Dr. Michael White
Dancing in the Sky
Bobby Previte
The Coalition of the Willing
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