Johannesburg
Album Review : iPhupho L’ka Biko- ‘Azania’ : introducing a significant South African jazz collective destined to reach out further.
Another piece of vinyl community service here from the We Are Busy Bodies team, sharing out the treasures of South African jazz to a wider listenership. This time though it’s not about resurrecting a long-lost classic from the golden seventies, ‘Azania’ by iPhupho L’ka Biko is the vinyl debut by a band that are now …
Album Review : We Are Busy Bodies reissue three mid-seventies SA Jazz gems from sax supremos “Mankunku” and Makhalemele.
The irrepressible curators at We Are Busy Bodies continue to tap into the energised seventies South African jazz eco-system with three more illuminating re-issues in their significant As-shams archival series. For some time now WABB have worked in close collaboration with Johannesburg based As-shams (aka The Sun) label, bringing the historic imprint’s burgeoning back catalogue …
Track/Video : Johannesburg jazz collective iPhupho L’ka Biko offer up ‘Braam Streets’ ahead of their significant debut EP ‘Azania’
More proof then, if you really need it, of the power and fortitude within new gen South African jazz. Those diligent sound searchers at We Are Busy Bodies announce ‘Azania’, the upcoming vinyl debut by iPhupho L’ka Biko, on the racks and shipping from 15th December. Formed by bassist/composer Nhlanhla Ngqaqu in 2015 from musical …
Track/Video : Jazz drummer Asher Gamedze announces definitive new album ‘Turbulence and Pulse’ with the profound, propulsive ‘Wynter Time’.
Now here is some serious news. When two pace setting labels, Johannesburg’s Mushroom Hour Half Hour and Chicago’s International Anthem combine their intent and purpose to put out a joint release then you know something seismic is brewing. Then add in the news that this first collaborative despatch on 5th May will be the new …
Album Review: Roots – Deeper Roots: a long last South African soul jazz reviver.
Continuing their excavation of the works of Almon Memela, one of those unheralded dynamos of seventies South African music, We Are Busy Bodies have just released ‘Deeper Roots’ by ROOTS (available from 13th May). If you picked up on the review of Memela’s soul-jazz classic ‘Funky Africa’ in Backseat Mafia last week you’ll already have …
Album Review: Pat Matshikiza and Kippie Moketsi – Tshona! : uplifting classic South African jazz from the 70s.
Those inspired curators at We Are Busy Bodies continue to astound with this latest release in their expanding achive from the seminal South African jazz label As Shams/The Sun. Pat Matshikiza and Kippie Moketsi’s ‘Tshona!’ (available from 15th April) was originally issued in 1975 and produced by label boss Rashid Vally, a pivotal figure in …