Post Description

Freedom Blues. South African Jazz Under Apartheid

01. Winston ‘Mankunku’ Ngozi – Yakhal’ Inkomo
02. Dollar Brand – Bombella
03. Zacks Nkosi – Soso
04. The Blue Notes – B My Dear [Live]
05. Kippi Moeketsi & John Mehegan & Claude Shange & Gene Latimore – Lover, Come Back to Me
06. Imeko Feat. Bra Benny – Marabi
07. Chris McGregor & The Castle Lager Big Band – Switch
08. Chris Schilder Quintet Feat. Winston ‘Mankunku’ Ngozi – Spring
09. Isipingo – Eli’s Song
10. Jimmy Dludlu – Linda
11. Kippi Moeketsi & John Mehegan & Hugh Masekela & Jonas Gwangwa & Claude Shange & Gene Latimore – Old Devil Moon
12. The Jazz Epistles – Scullery Department
13. African Jazz Pioneers – Yeka Yeka

Although this isn't "jive" music per se, there was a lot of crossover between the two styles as former jive musicians moved into the more serious hard jazz genre in the late '50s and early '60s. The most famous South African jazzman, pianist Dollar Brand, gained a wide audience in the European and American jazz scene, later changing his name to Abdullah Ibrahim -- his entry on this disc, "Bombella," is a bouncy mid-'70s recording that cops its melody from the Patrick Macnee novelty tune, "Kinky Boots." There's a dappling of drekky soft-jazz tracks on here, but for the most part this is a pretty solid collection, drenched in the soulful spirituality of John Coltrane and, to a lesser extent, the late-'50s cool-jazz of Miles Davis. Certainly worth checking out, although it's more a jazz set than a world music collection.