/ 21 October 2011

Out of the blues

Only one South African jazz group has been awarded an Order of Ikhamanga. The group released a half dozen recordings between 1964 and 1978, mainly while in exile. They revolutionised a stagnant ­British jazz scene, their legacy spread across Europe and their ­inheritors ­continue to inspire and make ­challenging music today.

Ask many South Africans to name them, however, and they would be stumped. On Friday a Chimurenga concert at Johannesburg’s Drill Hall aims to fill the knowledge gap.

The Blue Notes were formed in Cape Town in the early 1960s. White composer and pianist Chris McGregor joined forces with some of the most radical young black players on the city’s scene: alto saxophonist Dudu Pukwana, tenor saxophonist Nick Moyake, trumpeter Mongezi Feza, bassist Johnny Mbizo Dyani and drummer Louis Tebugo Moholo, the only original Blue Note still living.

“We were all kind of rebels,” Moholo told website allaboutjazz, “so, like birds of a feather [we] flocked together.”

When trumpeter Marcus Wyatt, arranger for Friday’s gig, started exploring the Blue Notes’s recorded output, two things surprised him. The first was how hard the music was to find, even after he extended his search to the repertoire of groups led later by McGregor — the ­Brotherhood of Breath — Dyani and Pukwana.

Music that ­people should know
The second was its power. “Sometimes the recordings weren’t great quality, but that doesn’t actually matter. I love Mongezi’s playing: the energy is crazy. Louis is ­amazing. I love Chris’s writing: the way he wrote for the individual ­characters in the band. This is music that ­people should know.”

The Blue Notes’s challenging free expression, says Wyatt, clearly rested on the empathy between the group’s members. “They really were a band and you can hear it. Sometimes groups here forget that and offer ‘free’ music without that bedrock.”

Small groups in South Africa have revived some classic McGregor and Pukwana compositions, but Chimurenga editor Ntone Edjabe wanted a concert with a bigger feel. So Wyatt is working with four horns, including Siya Makuzeni’s trombone, plus pianist Andile Yenana, bassist Thembinkosi Mavimbela and drummer Ayanda Sikade. The 10-tune playlist includes compositions by McGregor, Pukwana and Dyani.

“I’m not trying to rearrange or reinvent the music,” says Wyatt. “With four horns I can fill out the harmonies to get closer to a big-band sound. But I hope what will happen will also recall what you can feel happening on the recordings — seeing whose personality emerges to shine on each tune.”

Edjabe picked the music of the Blue Notes deliberately to echo themes in the publication he is launching, the Chronic, which deals with the pain of exile and xenophobia, something the Blue Notes also felt in a cold Europe.

Characteristically understated, McGregor told the United Kingdom’s Melody Maker he had “overestimated the open-mindedness” of the British scene. Moholo was more direct: “Exile is a fucker.”

But there was joy, too, much of it found in the solidarity of musical co-creation. Wyatt says he hopes ­Friday’s programme “balances the light and the shade. I know it’ll be a cool gig because the original compositions are such great tunes.”

The Forest and the Zoo — a Blue Notes tribute concert under the direction of Marcus Wyatt takes place on October 21 from 8pm at the Drill Hall, Twist Street, Joubert Park, Johannesburg.

Chimurenga editor Ntone Edjabe and DJs Nok and Soul Diablo will be on the decks, selecting gems from the discography of the Blue Notes as well as Brotherhood of Breath and more.

For more from Chimurenga Chronic, see the special report.