Next Stop ... Soweto Vol. 3 Giants, Ministers and Makers Jazz in South Africa 1963-1984.

Next Stop Soweto Vol. 3 is the story of the music that survived in South Africa during this mid-‘60s to mid-‘80s era. The album features many of the recognised South African jazz greats like saxophonist Dudu Pukwana and drummer Early Mabuza, the potent soul jazz grooves of The Heshoo Beshoo Group and The Drive and some of the many artists creating unique fusions like Philip Tabane’s Malombo mixing African drums and hand percussion with guitar, vocal and flute. This is important music, a defiant statement in the face of unimaginable cultural repression.

promo sampler:

01. MALOMBO JAZZ MAKERS – SIBATHATHU
02. ALLEN KWELA OCTET - QUESTION MARK
03. SPIRITS REJOICE – JOY
04. BATSUMI – ITUMELENG
05. MANKUNKU QUARTET – DEDICATION (TO DADDY TRANE AND BROTHER SHORTER)
06. DENNIS MPALE – ORLANDO
07. EARLY MABUZA QUARTET – LITTLE OLD MAN (MAXHEGWANA)
08. MALOMBO – SANGOMA
09. CHRIS SCHILDER QUARTET feat. MANKUNKU – SPRING
10. THE SOUL GIANTS – PINESE'S DANCE
11. THE HESHOO BESHOO GROUP – EMAKHAYA
12. THE DRIVE - HOWL
13. CHRIS McGREGOR & THE CASTLE LAGER BIG BAND – SWITCH

Mel Brown - Chicken Fat (1967)

Guitarist Mel Brown is hailed as "An Impulse! Discovery" on Chicken Fat, his debut for the label, and this album does feature a fantastic unique sound. Brown played in the bands of T-Bone Walker and John Lee Hooker, and has an aggressive (though not harsh) single-string picking style. For this date he is paired with either Herb Ellis or Arthur Wright on guitar, Gerald Wiggins on organ, and Brown's regular rhythm section of Paul Humphrey on drums and Ronald Brown on electric bass. There are a couple tracks that are played as pretty straight blues, but this is a hoppin' soul-jazz date. The tunes are bouncy and funky, and Brown's playing is a real treat. His bluesy, almost reckless soloing gives a vastly different flavor that the playing of guys like Grant Green or Melvin Sparks. Gerald Wiggins' organ playing is cool and swinging, and the electric bass of Ronald Brown makes this album about as funky as Impulse ever got. Both Herb Ellis and Arthur Wright get some solo space as well, with Ellis sounding quite interesting playing an unamplified 12-string on a couple cuts. Brown gets some nice tones as well, and on "Hobo Flats" plays "an electronic guitar with Wah-Wah distortion" (remember, this is 1967 jazz) "that gives a weird shimmering sound," according to the liner notes. Leave it to Impulse! to put a new spin on the guitar/organ sound. This is hot stuff - AMG


01 Chicken Fat
02 Greasy Spoon
03 Home James
04 Slalom
05 Hobo Flats
06 Shanty
07 Sad But True
08 I'm Goin' to Jackson
09 Blues for Big Bob

Everything Is Possible: The Best of Os Mutantes (1999)

01 Ando Meio Desligado
02 Ave, Lucifer
03 Dia 36
04 Baby [1971]
05 Fuga No. II
06 Cantor de Mambo
07 Adeus Maria Fulo
08 Desculpe, Babe
09 El Justiciero
10 Panis et Circenses
11 A Minha Menina
12 Bat Macumba
13 Le Premier Bonheur du Jour
14 Baby [1988]

Various Artists - Folk And Pop Sounds Of Sumatra Vol. 1 (2003)

01. Sitogol #1 (Haba Haba Group)
02. Unknown Title (Unknown Group)
03. Borungku Si Derita (Marios Group)
04. Siti Payung (Pimp Rubiah)
05. Indang Pariaman (Samsimar)
06. Piso Somalim #1 (Unknown Drama)
07. Sri Mersing (Pimp Rubiah)
08. Bapikek Balam (Samsimar)
09. Piso Somalim #2 (Unknown Drama)
10. Sitogol #2 (Haba Haba Group)

An essential collection of unique folk and pop music from the Island of Sumatra, including drone beat pop, jungle folk trance, gypsy hybrid songs, haunting vocal chants, and other beautiful, lost styles, which have yet to be discovered. The selections on this CD are a combination of droning beat pop, pseudo-gypsy songs, jungle folk trance, and other improbable traditional and hybrid styles heard by only a handful of outsiders. These recordings are from old cassette tapes received as gifts, in trade, or purchased from sources in Sumatra in 1989. Some of the tapes are unmarked with the artists unknown, yet all of them are decaying documents of various sound quality containing some of the most eccentric artifacts ever uncovered from this fascinating island.