Johnny Mbizo Dyani – Rejoice + Together (Cadillac Records, 2CD)
Infos von Amazon:
Johnny Mbizo Dyani was a South African bassist and composer who came to London as an apartheid exile with his compatriots in the racially-mixed Blue Notes group in 1964, and played a key role in the creative impact they made on British jazz in that era, before his death in 1986. This double album, also celebrating the 40th birthday of London jazz label Cadillac, catches the nimble and dramatic Dyani in a scorching free-jazz trio with the likewise shortlived trumpeter Mongezi Feza and classically trained Turkish drummer Okay Temiz, and a hollering, joyous, township-grooves septet including the great Blue Notes saxophonist Dudu Pukwana. Feza, a fizzing blend of Miles Davis and Don Cherry, leads the trio set with his fast, impulsive, fearlessly haphazard attack, while Dyani fuses implacable walks, richly sombre chordwork and audacious free-jazz countermelody. But the septet tracks are this collection’s most openly attractive features featuring Dyani on electric keys and vocals, the robustly sublime Pukwana on alto sax and whistles, and a powerful electric lineup. It’s mostly about catchy Dyani songs and a party vibe, but there’s enough of the inimitable Pukwana’s talkative, cajoling, and sometimes romantically smoky horn to keep the jazzers smiling. –The Guardian
This first release in Cadillac’s ’40th Anniversary Series‘ brings together two albums by the great South African bass player Johhny Mbizo Dyani, both originally released by Cadillac on vinyl and never before issued on CD. REJOICE is a trio album with Dyani’s compatriot Mongezi Feza and Turkish percussionist Okay Temiz, recorded at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm in October 1972, during a Swedish tour. Sadly by the time the album was actually released in 1988 only one member of the group remained, Feza having died in 1975 aged 30 and Dyani in 1986 aged 39. Both musicians had left South Africa as members of the Blue Notes group, settling in London never to return to their apartheid homeland. TOGETHER was also recorded in Stockholm, where Dyani was by then living, in Dec 1979 / Jan 1980. The group was put together specially with Dyani’s old cohort Dudu Pukwana invited over from London to play. ‚The music is very special. Transcending the boundaries of nations and cultures, Mbizo s enthusiasm spread and inspired the sessions with his intense passion. A passion which revelled in a nostalgia for the myths and melodies of Marabi and Kwela. Mbizo s life was music, he gave his life for music. These sessions are Mbizo s own testimony to the spirit of hope for the future, for a better world. It is a statement so filled with vitality and with the joy of rediscovered roots that it will stand as a signpost to the whole of his life and work.‘ (from the sleevenotes)
--
"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #164: Neuheiten aus dem Archiv, 10.6., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba