Recommend Me Some Good Afro Jazz Albums, Plz

There's a new Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids album coming in July or August; it's called Shaman! (punctuation in original). Good stuff as always.

I recently bought some South African jazz on Bandcamp. I particularly recommend two big band albums by Marcus Wyatt & the ZAR Jazz Orchestra - One Night in the Sun and Into Dust/Waltz for Jozi. They feature African instruments (a banjo-like thing in particular) mixed with big band, and a singer who switches back and forth between English and Xhosa.

https://zarjazzorchestra.bandcamp.com/album/marcus-wyatt-the-zar-jazz-orchestra-one-night-in-the-sun

https://zarjazzorchestra.bandcamp.com/album/marcus-wyatt-the-zar-jazz-orchestra-into-dust-waltz-for-jozi

pretty excited for that Ackamoor. I just picked up the "Music of Idris Ackamoor" comp on bandcamp today

so i found this a few days ago. some e-digging led me to this, which i ordered immediately. am presently awaiting its' arrival with much enthusiasm.

This morning, when I went to start the car, I had forgotten that the first seven or so minutes of Pharaoh Sanders' "Upper Egypt & Lower Egypt" had played in the car yesterday, and the iPod started in the middle of the track.

This meant that I really started cruising as the piano's melodic line comes in. The sun was shining. I turned it up way too loud and people on the street were staring at me, but one guy yelled, "PHARAOH! YES!" as I went by.

Bandcamp had this on their best reissues list. South African (lightly funky) jazz:
https://wearebusybodies.bandcamp.com/album/heshoo-beshoo-group-armitage-road

Really enjoying it

Ah, I just realized I already know one of these songs, "Emakhaya," from the Next Stop Soweto comp

ah i just saw the reissue lp in the shop the other day, but grabbed this other south african jazz reissue instead. maybe i'll go back and see if it's still there!

https://outernationalsounds.bandcamp.com/album/habiba

ah ah ah xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umH2fPYpk_8

That looks great, tlg, thanks! Gonna queue that up next.
I am definitely ordering this Heshoo Beshoo, I can't resist the thrill of paying in Canadian dollars

There's a new Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids album coming in July or August; it's called Shaman! (punctuation in original). Good stuff as always.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, June 19, 2020 9:28 AM (five months ago)

This was good! Ackamoor's trio of 21st-century albums is an extremely impressive late-career run, though I'd suggest newbies start with We Be All Africans

I've been listening to a South African saxophonist named Teaspoon Ndelu - mostly stuff from the 1970s and 80s. Nice jazz-funk with some disco elements. This album, from 1988, is solid, but the reissue (which is what you get here) also includes his first album, Magic Man, from 1973, and that's the good shit.

https://teaspoon-ndelu.bandcamp.com/album/new-horizons-1988

I found the song I will be listening to on my porch every night this summer. Unfortunately not on YouTube.
Thembe Mkhize, Emakhuzeni (stimela sase msawawa)

https://open.spotify.com/track/2kNlUZLurTIKoA7mT8fJ5q?si=lJSnz3v9SJyTsSR4a9sswQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Plxz3pC3ms

ty

man that's stunning, thanks for sharing

Yes, thanks!
Some notes from last year's Top 20:
Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela, Rejoice: some tracks a little too much like lesser or style-sound reliant variants of others? Maybe a couple, but overall groove and style-sound (what they do and how it's produced, lightning in a shapely bottle) hooks abound between the twin leads of flugelhorn (mellowness netted and pushed and pulled and slid through) the loping, splattering, slinking, stinking, whatever's right for drums, with bits of tenor sax, keys, vibes at times hang-fly (to steal an ancient Village Voice-quoted term of Steve Coleman's) Calm and tireless, enough space in there, none wasted.

Felt lousy all morning---then I heard this! Legendary vibraphonist and "Father of Ethio-jazz", Mulatu Astatke joins forces with Melbourne-based eight-piece Black Jesus Experience on their latest album To Know Without Knowing, an absorbing nine-track assembly of majestic Ethiopian melodies and hip-hop-infused jazz and funk grooves. Also: Latin, reggae extrapolations, 16-bar blues (as a bed for much else), instrumental inflections from at least five different countries of origin, cool but committed female voices, incisive rap, psychedelic guitar (one trip, but that's enough, for "Living On Stolen Land" (Ain't it graaand"): Its moody 6/8 vamp in D is a gateway, yes.) And they've got wedding song, a send-off to the afterlife, other serious fun---that flugelhorn omg:https://mulatuastatkeblackjesusexperience.bandcamp.com/album/to-know-without-knowing

Asher Gamedze, Dialectic Soul--->AG: "Fundamentally, it is about the reclamation of the historical imperative. It is about the dialect of the soul & the spirit while it moves through history. The soul is dialectic. Motion is imperative. We keep moving." For instance, in the opening "Emergence Suite," tenor sax and trumpet can seize on moments all they like or or must, while bass & drums are like,"Yeah, yeah, that's good, that's good, come on now, mind your head, good." Also perfectly supportive of, never submissive to horn comments and slender, strong singing in "Siyabulela." Then a witty, fabulistic stroll through enormity in "Interregnum," where "the hopscotch ended much as it began" along the way (Don't worry, that's almost all for the voices). "Eternality" is more work-out than bliss-out, but good between the couch potato headphones. "Hope In Azania" is adrenaline afterglow in second wind, not too hopeful, but reasonably so it seems; oh yeah Speculative Fourth" does eventually let a human sing along some more with the horns, for a little while, sorry anti-voxxers*. https://ashergamedze.bandcamp.com/album/dialectic-soul

*Some people on Rolling Jazz really aren't into vocals

Also, speaking what Tipsy Mothra said upthread, ouis Moholo and Dudu Pukwana are mentioned above, but the whole universe of music that came out of The Blue Notes and their coterie is amazing. The Blue Notes recordings themselves are basically mid-60s Afro bop, and they're great, but after they moved to England they all did so many different things: Brotherhood of Breath, Spear, Assagai, Harry Miller's Isipingo and the totally essential "Blue Notess for Mongezi." Just a remarkable constellation of players, exploring a wide range of stuff and bringing South African influences into all kinds of settings., this is a very intriguing roadmap:
How South Africa’s Blue Notes Helped Invent European Free Jazz
By Piotr Orlov · September 16, 2020
https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/blue-notes-south-african-jazz-guide?utm_source=footer

lol at "anti-voxxers"

had never heard of Tlokwe Sehume & Medu from South Africa but this kept popping up while i was listening to random Eddie Harris tracks on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPBh-2tE21o

I see Johnny Dyani was mentioned upthread but not this particular album (which was on a lot over the summer). Whole album is great but this track in particular is pure gold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ4DiS6Vc3Y

Thanks, need to check some more of his----meanwhile, something I posted about on Rolling Jazz 2022:

...jazz is where you find it, and I'm smitten by this Sudanese ballad: hybrid guitar, normie rhythm guitar, bass, perc., just the right bits of tenor sax (most other tracks are faster, equally thoughtful grooves, and the finale has its own dynamic):

That's this
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3036461062_10.jpg

Ghanaian saxophonist Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is doing highlife versions of jazz tunes on his album Hi-Life Jazz, which comes out October 7. Here's his version of "Round Midnite" (how it's spelled on the album):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w4fh11mv6E

xpost Right after the one I posted on RJ, budo jeru added:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XwKYYFvcDo

xpost Ambolley too! We're cooking this afternoon.

Saw some thread on Twitter about modern South African jazz but I can’t find it now. Any recommendations?

Nduduzo Makhathini
Keleketla!

Oh thanks!

That in the spirit of ntu album was mention on that thread

two other recent favs

Ayanda Sikade - Umakhulu
Linda Sikhakhane - Isambulo

if you don't get a response from unperson on this thread, try asking your question on the rolling jazz thread

oh and

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/rainbow-revisited

Really loving this record

https://honestjons.com/shop/artist/The_Malombo_Jazz_Makers/release/Down_Luckys_Way

Nduduzo Makhathini is fantastic, as others have said — in addition to his latest one, In the Spirit of Ntu, check out Ikhambi (the first thing I heard by him) and Listening to the Ground.

Tenor saxophonist Linda Sikhakhane (a dude) is really good, too; his albums Two Sides, One Mirror and Isambulo are traditional (if Coltrane-in-1964 is a tradition) but worth your time.

I also like saxophonist Sisonke Xonti; wrote about him here.

I interviewed drummer Ayanda Sikade for Bandcamp last year; that was a thrill. He's a super nice guy.

Trumpeter Ndabo Zulu's Queen Nandi: The African Symphony is really good, too; I wrote about that here.

https://mindmaintenance.bandcamp.com/album/mind-maintenance

This Josh Abrams & Chad Taylor record is a nice one from a few years ago

unless i'm mistaken, neither of them are south african?

They are not. I guess I was just recommending “other stuff that is heavily influenced by African sounds”

gotcha. this would be the thread for that ;)