In Praise of Bheki Mseleku

Bheki Mseleku, the South African-born jazz pianist passed away yesterday in London. You can read the announcement of his sad passing here, here and here, and see tributes here and here. To catch up on history and his impact, go here, here and here. And here are 2 tunes from his Myspace page.

UPDATE: And here is a MP3 of his song, “Joy”.

I was fortunate to see him play at the Cape Town Jazz Festival (then still the North Sea Jazz Festival at the Good Hope Center).

I’ll be digging up my copies of “Celebration,” “Beaty of Sunrise” and “Home at Last.”

A few months ago a reader in Argentina who blogs about jazz in that country, asked me to recommend African jazz. Of course, I acknowledged my South African bias. I listed Abdullah as my top recommendation. Bheki came in second, above Hotep Galeta, Kippie Moeketsi, Winston Mankunku, and even Moses Molelekwa.

Anyway, here’s an edited version of that comment to the Argentinian jazz lover:

I have a South African bias so most of the recommendations will be from there. I also like piano music. It also depends on how you define jazz. Fela is not seen as jazz, but Hugh Masekela who composed a number of Fela-influenced tunes like “Lady” is considered jazz. The South African may also have to do with the fact that South Africa has a market, although small, for jazz (its Cape Town International Jazz Festival is still big on the jazz calender and it has radio stations playing the genre). So here goes my suggestions:

1. The best jazz from Africa is definitely the catalogue of Abdullah Ibrahim, known as Dollar Brand before he converted to Islam while living in NYC. This is a man who played with Duke Ellington’s orchestra. Everything by him is useful. His full catalogue can be viewed on his website, but I would emphasize the albums “Mannenberg Is Where it’s Happening,”. “Mantra Mode,” “Africans in Space,” “Cape Town Revisited,” “Water from Ancient Well,” “Mindif,” and of course his collaboration with Max Roach: “Stream of Consciousness.” The soundtrack albums he did with Claire Denis (for the film “Chocolat,” among others) are also good. So is his later orchestral work, with the most representative: “Ekapa Ledumo” and “African Symphony.”

2. Bheki Mseleku — Durban-born, based in London for a while, piano and sax player. best album “Celebration.”

3. Hotep Galeta. piano. studied and played with Jackie McClain From Cape Town. I like his album “Malay Tone Poem.”

4. Hugh Masekela of course. Exuberant music bordering on pop. Good live band. His 1970s stuff is the best. “The Boys are doing it” and the stuff off his Chisa label. [Edit: I recently bought his “Home is the where the music” off iTunes. It jams. sax and piano player Dudu Pukwana is on the album.]

5. Sathima Bea Benjamin. Born in Cape Town. Also Mrs Abdullah Ibrahim and mother to Tsidi Ibrahim/Jean Grae. Lives in New York City. She is still recording and performing (saw her performing a few years back in the West Village), but nothing will live up to her 1960s recording “Morning in Paris” recorded with Duke Ellington (great story behind that album; just google it).

6. Kippie Moeketsi, a sax player who died in the 1970s but played together with Ibrahim and Masekela on the album “Jazz Epistles: Verse One” . You can also hear him on the South African musical “King Kong” soundtrack (nothing to do with the US story).

7. Sax player Winston Mankunku who made “Yakhal Inkomo” in the early 1960s.

8. The band Brotherhood of Breath and individually the musicians who came out of that: Chris McGregor, Mongezi Feza, Dudu Pukwana (see my earlier comments on Masekela), Johnny Dyani (check out the albums “Witchdoctor’s Son” and “Song for Biko”, the latter with Don Cherry).

9. Of the younger players, a few stand out: Moses Molelekwa who sadly committed suicide in 2001 (best: “Live at the Fin de siecle, Nantes” recorded in 1997), Andile Yenana (best: his first album, “We Used to Dance”) and Marcus Wyatt (”Africans in Space”).

EDIT: I also like the piano player Mark Fransman who has gathered eclectic musicians around him (I think his band that included Kesivan Naidoo/Sean Ou-Tim, and Buddy Wells, that had a regular gig in Observatory a while ago, is no more). There’s also the recordings of guitarists Carlo Mombelli and Johnny Fourie (he passed away last year), drummer Kevin Gibson, among others.

I may be wrong, and it may reflect the fact that I live in New York City, but there’s not been much fresh jazz music lately [21st century jazz, I mean), as I discover on my more recent travels back to South Africa.

UPDATE: I have been told of the genius of Kesivan Naidoo’s Restless Natives crew (Fransman plays sax in this band). Read about them here and listen here.

UPDATE TWO: There’s also Kwani Experience, Oscar Rachabane (son of Barney), Mpumi Dlamini and Tumi and the Volume.

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