Jazz City 511
Jazz City 511
By Jay Mazza
New Orleans- South Africa Connection
Last Saturday, while attending the weekly in-store performance at the Louisiana Music Factory, I had the opportunity to chat with an older gentleman who was visiting New Orleans from South Africa. He was an obvious jazz buff and was enthusiastically appreciating the performance by Walter Payton and his Snap Bean Band.
I asked him during the set break about music from South Africa. Specifically, I was interested in modern jazz recordings released by Gallo Records, one of the biggest labels in that country, during the height of the reprehensible Apartheid era.
Most readers know that Apartheid was a system of repression that subjugated the black majority in South Africa under a series of laws that limited contact between the races and a host of other evils. However, readers may not be aware of how much great music was created during the early days of this system.
Several of the stars of this period, Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, and Abdullah Ibrahim among them, went into exile because of the repressive nature of the regime. Their music reached a much larger audience than the musicians who stayed in the country. It also became part of the struggle that ultimately led to the dismantling of the system.
However, while those musicians became world famous ambassadors of freedom, countless others struggled in obscurity as the world turned its back on the regime. Many of those musicians recorded for the Gallo label. Much of their work has not seen the light of day outside of South Africa.
The work of these obscure artists deserves to be heard by the larger world. In fact, one of these musicians, a saxophonist by the name of Kippie Moeketsi, has actually been compared to John Coltrane. Sadly, Moeketsi died young, beaten down by oppression and much of what he recorded remains locked in the vaults at Gallo or simply unavailable outside of South Africa. The same goes for countless other musicians who labored under the system.
Unfortunately, the gentleman from South Africa couldn’t help me with my questions. He was a trad jazz fan and had no information on re-releases of the older material. He also didn’t know much about the thriving contemporary jazz scene in South Africa.
Luckily, we have a South African music expert among us. For the past three years, Damon Batiste, of the New Orleans musical family, has been leading an organization dedicated to increasing the business and musical connections between New Orleans and South Africa.
The fourth annual “Making the Connection Week” that is put on by Batiste’s organization, NOSACONN (New Orleans- South Africa Connection), begins on Monday. They have quite a schedule of events planned including the highly anticipated return of Prince Kupi- a stellar guitarist who hails from the Soweto neighborhood in South Africa.
Prince Kupi participated in the cultural exchange put on by Batiste in 2001. He performed around town and I got the opportunity to see him in two different configurations.
My first experience hearing this phenomenal player was as part of a showcase at Snug Harbor. He performed along with a great bass player named Musa Manzini and a saxophonist named Moses Khumelo. They put on a wonderful set that featured Damon Batiste on percussion and a guest turn by Irvin Mayfield who ripped a couple of blazing solos on trumpet. It was truly a musical connection between South Africa and New Orleans.
The next night, Prince Kupi and Moses Khumelo appeared in duo form at the Fine Arts Center. This time Moses played some great piano and Prince Kupi wailed on the guitar.
Prince Kupi will be appearing at the Sandbar at UNO on Wednesday night starting at 7:30 PM. The following night he will appear at Snug Harbor with Patrick De Santos, a jazz vocalist from the Cape Verde Islands. De Santos has performed in the United States before. His music is close to Brazilian in nature due to the fact that the Portuguese also colonized Cape Verde. De Santos has also appeared on an album by a modern rock band called Thievery Corporation.
There are several other events scheduled as part of the Cultural Exchange Week. Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews will perform with pianist Jonathan Batiste at the Lionel Milton Gallery on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday night, David Batiste, Sr. will perform at Patio 79 along with South African musicians and an Afro Cuban band from Mexico.
On Sunday night, the big finale of the week’s events will take place at the House of Blues. Johnny Vidacovich and George Porter, Jr. will provide musical entertainment with special guests Leo Nocentelli, Russell Batiste, Bill Summers and Busi Mhlongo from Durban, South Africa. See you there!