Even so, many jazz lovers elsewhere may be aware of the long history and uniqueness of South Africa\u2019s jazz legacy through only a few names \u2013 Miriam Makeba, Abdullah Ibrahim, Hugh Masekela \u2013 who were driven out by apartheid to find world stages. Uncovering, documenting and showcasing more of the creativity that fought to flower inside the country remains a work in progress.<\/p>\n
For writer and filmmaker Calum MacNaughton of Cape Town-based Sharp-Flat Music(link is external), it\u2019s vital work. He\u2019s the archivist and curator of the historic As-Shams record label(link is external) archive. MacNaughton told me, in an interview as part of my ongoing research into South African jazz histories(link is external), that he wants access to the archive not only for musicology researchers but \u201centhusiasts and budding musicians in frivolous conversation late into the night\u201d.<\/p>\n
As-Shams has a 60-year history as South Africa\u2019s first black-owned record label, founded by music producer Rashid Vally out of a corner of his father\u2019s Koh-i-Noor general store in central Johannesburg. As-Shams was responsible for an eclectic array of releases from the teenage township pop of The Beaters (who became Harari) to the iconic, implicitly subversive Mannenberg (Is Where its Happening) of Abdullah Ibrahim (then Dollar Brand).<\/p>\n
As part of opening access, As-Shams recently released the first volume of a planned series of archival compilations covering the label\u2019s history. As-Shams Archive Vol. 1: South African Jazz, Funk & Soul 1975-1982(link is external) contains 10 tracks, 10 original compositions and 10 ensembles. More than 90 minutes of music spans eight deeply repressive apartheid years. Yet, in those years artists of the calibre of pianists Lionel Pillay, Tete Mbambisa and Pat Matshikiza, saxophonists Kippie Moeketsi, Basil \u2018Manenberg\u2019 Coetzee and Mike Makhalemele, and vocalist Sathima Bea Benjamin were making original, innovative music.<\/p>\n
The album<\/p>\n
The compilation unites tracks from various albums As-Shams has already remastered and reissued, predominantly since 2020. But curating its contents, says MacNaughton, provided the opportunity for a fresh approach, to shape new sequences reflecting professional networks and shared thematic concerns.<\/p>\n
For example: \u201cOn the vinyl edition Side A is dedicated to the remarkable connection between Moeketsi and Matshikiza. Dick Khoza [, as leader, is heard] on the heels of his performance with Mbambisa\u2019s big band Black Disco\u2019s Night Express and Pillay\u2019s Deeper In Black are thematically linked. And the compilation closes with Benjamin\u2019s music, which ties everything together with a spiritual thread.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also what he calls an \u201c11th hidden track\u201d: artwork on the vinyl from South African painter and graphic artist Hargreaves Ntukwana, often the label\u2019s cover artist of choice.<\/p>\n
This restructuring works: tracks have a wholly new impact when heard in fresh company, rather than embedded in their original albums. By avoiding the \u201cobvious\u201d choices \u2013 often the title tracks \u2013 the collection conveys the collective music making of a community and an era, rather than fondly remembered jazz hits.<\/p>\n
Restoring the archive<\/p>\n
Yet the process of recovering what MacNaughton counts as \u201csome of South Africa\u2019s most important cultural artefacts of the 20th Century\u201d, wasn\u2019t without problems. Despite fears about degradation, the tapes had not been damaged by constant moving.<\/p>\n
Rather, the problem was getting the history right, revealing the meticulous detective work that restoring South Africa\u2019s hidden musical history demands. Though most tapes had been carefully annotated, recording engineers sometimes did not name all players, and occasionally the paper record of names was absent. Just one example from the compilation was McNaughton being \u201cpresented the challengeof identifying which of the three bassists and two drummers who share the album credit appear on the specific track. I reached out to bassist Lionel Beukes, who spent a weekend listening to the track only to conclude that he couldn\u2019t say for certain.<\/p>\n
In other cases, artists remained unidentified because of contractual commitments to other labels, or the imprint faced restrictions because of conflicting licensing and distribution deals.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most complex detection trail surrounded another As-Shams re-release: Pillay\u2019s Shrimp Boats(link is external). That first appeared in 1987 when As-Shams resurrected its Mandla imprint to issue out-of-print titles. Multiple tracks were brought together to round out the length of an album, not all the performer credits travelled with them and the cover artwork omitted Pillay in favour of Coetzee.<\/p>\n
By pure happenstance, this writer played the resulting album to the late Robbie Jansen in Botswana in the late 1980s. \u201cHey,\u201d the saxophonist said, \u201cthat\u2019s me playing saxophone on \u2018Birdland\u2019! I always wondered what happened to that session \u2026\u201d Yet Jansen was not named on the sleeve. When I communicated this to MacNaughton after the 2022 rerelease, he contacted everybody still living he could find who might have memories to confirm the attribution. Having confirmed it, the label put new information online.<\/p>\n
MacNaughton is extremely sensitive about the responsibilities of any reissue \u2013 not only to artists, but also to music historians and the truth.<\/p>\n
Why this matters<\/p>\n
MacNaughton is still digging through the archives. A second compilation in preparation features, among others, guitarist Themba Mokoena, \u201970s fusion group Spirits Rejoice and saxophonist Winston \u2018Mankunku\u2019 Ngozi. Full releases are planned for forgotten sessions by Mbambisa and Moeketsi.<\/p>\n
Restoring these masterworks to the public domain can change our conversations about South African jazz. Instead of isolated stars, we hear a community at work: the rich musical conversations disrupting what has sometimes been characterised as a silent cultural period under apartheid. Conversing with each other, with overseas jazz and with tradition, those players made the music what it is today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s fitting that Johannesburg is among 12 cities featured in the 2023 UNESCO International Jazz Day(link is external), themed \u201cjazz journey around the world\u201d. The day, established in 2011 to celebrate the role of jazz in \u201cuniting peoples across the globe\u201d, is now marked annually on 30 April in close to 200 nations. It would have been hosted by Cape Town in 2020 had COVID-19 not intervened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":28527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,31],"tags":[7,14,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-28530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-music","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"yoast_head":"\n