For today’s International Jazz Day (IJD), it’s worth catching up on two recent releases demonstrating how seamlessly South Africa is now integrated into the international jazz world.
But it’s also worth reflecting on how little we really value our jazz heritage here at home. Within 24 hours, two great South Africans died yesterday: boxing legend Dingaan “the Rose” Thobela, and jazzman, goema innovator and orchestral composer Mac McKenzie. This morning, while media celebrated IJD, they universally paid – deserved – tributes to Thobela’s sporting prowess. Not one has yet, as I write at 7:00am today, mourned the towering loss of the latter.
The final item in the playlist below reminds you quite what a unique and brilliant talent is now gone from us.
So, let’s temper our joy as we listen to these two albums with reflections that appreciating our own jazz heritage still has quite a long way to go.
Karl-Martin Almqvist’s Ababhemu Quartet is a 50:50 affair: the Swedish reedman and Norwegian bassist Magne Thormodsæter, with Nduduzo Makhathini on piano (and contributing one composition of eight), and Ayanda Sikade on drums. Ababhemu’s 2024 The Travelers (https://karlmartinalmqvist.bandcamp.com/album/the-travelers) is a debut recording, but the culmination of a period of collaboration dating back to 2014 when the pianist invited Almqvist to Joburg. Its conscious impulse is, quite explicitly, to play “against the history of coloniality” (https://ropeadope.com/karlmartin/).
South Africans are in the majority on Swiss drummer Dominic Egli’s quintet Plurism and the outfits fifth release, Umhlangano ( https://dominicegli.bandcamp.com/album/umhlangano). Egli and bassist Raffaele Bossard are joined by trumpeter Feya Faku and reedmen Sisonke Xonti and Mthunzi Mvubu. Faku contributes one composition of this eight; another, Introspection, comes from the pens of Xonti, Bokani Dyer and Bejamin Jephta, arranged by David Cousins, while a third is based on the poetry of Sibongakonke Mama. A dedication here, too, is to internationalism, in the form of SOS Mediterranée and Sea Watch, whose Captain Rackete defied Italian maritime authorities to bring 41 shipwrecked migrants safely to port.
In character, they are of course very different albums. Exactly like their international counterparts, South African jazz players don’t only sound one way or represent only a single tradition.
The Travelers is an intense outing, deliberately exploring the spirituality shared across continents, with a very Coltraneish vibe, underlined by Almqvist’s yearning tenor voice. That area of otherwordly searching is also Makhathini’s space, and he contributes sombre, moving spoken invocations to Smangaliso (miracle) and to the title track. On his own solo, Ukubuyisana, he reminds us what a gorgeously contemplative, soulful pianist he can be when not delivering the crashing crescendos that bigger ensembles sometimes demand. As for Sikade, his sticks and brushes add gold everywhere. He’s sensitive to the patterns and nuances of each composition, and to what his co-players need. The more I hear of him, the more I wonder why his profile in this country isn’t higher. On any stage, he’s a master.
Umhlangano (gathering) is equally intense, with the focus on process: the tight, empathetic meshing and hocketing of five very distinctive instrumental voices grounded in Egli’s edgy engine room (which takes centre-stage on Children Song).
Faku is sounding literally brilliant these days: there’s a new brightness to his instrumental tone. His composition, A Pocket Full of Cherries for Mongezi, is a witty but faithful take on the approach of those two iconoclastic horn-men, with space for a knockout bass solo from Bossard. Mvubu and Xonti segue beautifully between warm, fat choruses and imaginative solos, while Kanon (which plays with both classical and jazz concepts of voices fitting together) lets flute as well as saxophones speak.
In just over an hour and a half combined, these two albums demonstrate the idiocy of borders in cultural creation – and in several other areas too. This is not “us” playing “their” music, or “them” playing “ours”. This is music from and to the world and a fitting sermon for IJD.
And they make me wonder at why we have no place for such international cooperation in our music awards. Surely a “best cross-border collaboration” category somewhere is long overdue? Awards may have their downside (which I’ve written about at length) but work of this calibre ought to be getting recognition that transcends narrow nationalism.
https://dominicegli.bandcamp.com/album/umhlangano
sisgwenjazz 