Tete Mbambisa 'Black Heroes' Launch Concert - 22 April 2012

Tete Mbambisa, one of South Africa’s most important jazz musicians, returns with a new solo piano album Black Heroes. A launch concert with special guests will take place at the College of Music, UCT in Rondebosch on Sunday 22 April at 6 pm.

Mbambisa’s career spans fifty years and he can be heard on numerous recordings by many giants of South African jazz. His 1976 album Tete’s Big Sound is a classic in the annals of local jazz. Mbambisa is featured in the 2003 movie Sophiatown and his compositions have been covered by the likes of Chris McGregor, The Blue Notes, McCoy Mrubata and Adam Glasser.

Black Heroes was recorded at Stellenbosch University in 2010 and the title composition is dedicated to three great figures in South African history - Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela.

Tickets are R50 (R40 for seniors & students) and are available at the door. Call 079 0359 837 or email eato{@}ev2.co.uk
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More on "Black Heroes":

Background

Black Heroes, the new solo piano album from Tete Mbambisa, takes its title from a composition dedicated to three great figures of the struggle years – Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela. This, the first commercially released solo piano recording by Tete Mbambisa, offers listeners the chance to hear one of South Africa's greatest jazz pianists in the solo format. The composition 'Black Heroes' was originally written for Mbambisa's iconic album Tete's Big Sound which was released by Rashid Valley's legendary As-Shams label in 1976, a few months before the June 16th Uprising. Although Bra Tete is quite clear that his music is composed as music, rather than as political statement, he is also clear that both the title and dedication are significant and that as an artist he is also part of the wider community. As Vusi Khumalo wrote in the original liner notes for Tete's Big Sound: 'Tete Mbambisa brings to the outside world this sad, sacred story, and puts the Black artist in the forefront.'

Tete Mbambisa has performed and recorded with many of the giants of South African jazz (Bazil 'Manenberg' Coetzee, Johnny Dyani, Lulu Gontsana, Dick Khoza, Early Mabuza, Duku Makasi, Hugh Masekela, Nik Moyake, Ezra Ngcukana, Winston Mankunku Ngozi, Dudu Pukwana, Barney Rachabane et al), and is one of the very few jazz musicians that can claim to have played with the three jazz generations of the last fifty years. He featured in Pascale Lamche's 2003 movie Sophiatown, and his compositions have been recorded by The Blue Notes, Adam Glasser, Chris McGregor, McCoy Mrubata and Brian Thusi. His work as a pianist, vocalist, composer and arranger can also be found on many anthologies of South African jazz.

A new recording for 2012

Bra Tete first came to public attention after recording four sides with his vocal group, The Four Yanks, for Gallo Africa in 1962. Black Heroes places Mbambisa’s Four Yanks classic 'Umsenge' alongside recent compositions such as 'One For Asa', but it is the compositions 'Dembese' and 'Stay Cool' – along with his arrangement of the traditional song 'Mbombela' – that foreground Mbambisa's unique ability to infuse mbaqanga with contemporary jazz. The unfettered musical space a solo pianist has to explore ideas, combined with the clarity of the Black Heroes recording, provides the clearest insight yet into Tete Mbambisa's creativity. With Black Heroes
Tete Mbambisa celebrates fifty years at the forefront of South African jazz, and the reason for the enduring popularity of his music remains abundantly clear to those with an ear for harmonic sophistication and rhythmic drive.

Recorded on 14 and 15 August 2010 at the Fismer Hall in Stellenbosch, and edited in York (UK) and Mdantsane (SA), Black Heroes was mastered at Skye Mastering by Denis Blackham (mastering engineer for reissues of Chris McGregor’s Very Urgent, Our Prayer, and Up To Earth).

The CD contains ten tracks all of which are Mbambisa originals (with the exception of 'Mbombela'). The package includes a 24 page full-colour booklet featuring previously unpublished photographs, a complete discography, and extensive notes.

What they say about Tete Mbambisa

Christopher Ballantine (author of Marabi Nights)
"Tete is of course one of the greatest pianists to have come out of South Africa, but before that time Tete had an extraordinary career as a leader and arranger for The Four Yanks, which was an utterly remarkable group." (2010)

Chris McGregor (pianist and composer with The Blue Notes and the Brotherhood of Breath)
"Tete Mbambisa's group with Dudu on the piano; four voices in close harmony, very sophisticated, very modern, superb, with fantastic dance routines. I adored that; they were really very, very fine, very sharp… If one could have heard them in Europe a bit later people would have been knocked out." (1972)

Pinise Saul (vocalist for Dudu Pukwana's Spear, Adam Glasser's Mzansi, and director of the South African Gospel Singers)
"He's an amazing pianist, the world must hear this pianist from home. Hamba Mbambisa! He's got all the harmonies, he doesn’t need singers. Everything is there." (2011)

Release information
Black Heroes will be available in shops and online from 19 April 2012.

THE AFRICAN MUSIC STORE
134 Long Street
Cape Town, South Africa
Tel/Fax: +27 21 4260857
Email: info{@}africanmusic.co.za
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Web: www.africanmusicstore.co.za

http://www.kalahari.com/

[from May 2012]
http://ev2.co.uk/jisa/records/

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Tete Mbambisa Trio @ the Green Dolphin

Captured info -
Date : 20 April 2011
Venue: The Green Dolphin, Cape Town

Tete Mbambisa on Piano, Norman Sauls on Bass, Ivan Bell on Drums

Tete Mbambisa



Norman Sauls



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Composers Panel - South African jazz musicians-IMS SASRIM Conference

The International Music Society (IMS) and South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM) Conference is happening at the University of Stellenbosch from 14-17 July 2010.

Jonathan Eato, researcher, composer, saxophonist and lecturer in music at the University of York (UK), has secured a proposal with the IMS SASRIM conference that the composers panel should also feature three extraordinary South African jazz musicians namely, Tete Mbambisa, Louis Moholo-Moholo and Zim Ngqawana.

The conference charges a fee, but this talk is freely open to anyone who is interested in attending and not just academics.

Below is a detailed blurb:

IMS SASRIM Composer’s Panel
10:30-12:00, 16 July 2010, Konservatorium, University of Stellenbosch. ALL WELCOME


What does it mean to be a South African jazz musician in an increasingly globalised music industry? Are contemporary musical identities primarily of jazz or of South Africa? How are these musical identities explored locally and internationally? Jean François Bayart draws our attention to the curious paradox that the effects of increased international exchange are simultaneously a homogenisation and a flowering of localised difference – how does the contemporary artist seek to navigate this creatively? Has it become increasingly possible to be musically Xhosa in jazz and if so how? Antjie Krog talks of a mingling or entanglement of roots in order to ask how one root can become or link to another, whilst Deleuze might argue that things continue to become the other, while continuing to be what they are.


The three artists on this panel have, between them, taken South African jazz from vocal jive, through bebop and free improvisation, to contemporary big band and a Xhosa inflected avant-garde. Following an introduction to their work these three extraordinary musicians will discuss their music and ideas.

In alphabetical order the panellists are:


Tete Mbambisa
Tete Mbambisa’s musical legacy stretches back to his early work with the vocal group The Four Yanks. He later switched to the piano and won first prize for piano at the 1963 Castle Lager Festival. His work with the Soul Jazzmen led to the influential recording of Duke Makasi’s ‘Inhlupeko’ (1969) and in the politically charged South Africa of early 1976 Mbambisa recorded the album ‘Tete’s Big Sound’ for Rashid Vally’s iconic As-Shams label. This was followed in 1982 with another As-Shams release ‘Did You Tell Your Mother’. His fruitful association with Duke Makasi continued and resulted in the recording of one of Mbambisa’s best known compositions – ‘Thembile’s Workshop’ featured on The Brothers’ album ‘Xhosa Nostra’ with Victor Ntoni (bass) and Lulu Gontsana (drums). It is a tribute to the high regard in which Mbambisa is held by musicians that Johnny Dyani, Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana, and others continued to pay musical and verbal tributes to him long in to their European exiles.


Louis Moholo-Moholo
Described by UK jazz critic John Fordham in the Guardian newspaper as ‘one of the legends of the South African and British jazz scenes’, drummer and composer Louis Moholo-Moholo came to prominence in the 1960s for his work with the Blue Notes (Johnny Dyani, Mongezi Feza, Chris McGregor, Nikele Moyake, Dudu Pukwana). He played a key role in early Brotherhood of Breath lineups, has led several influential bands under his own name (the Louis Moholo-Moholo Unit and Viva La Black) and after nearly half a century on the international scene continues to be described by Fordham as ‘a blast of fresh air’. Moholo-Moholo has worked with many leading improvising musicians including Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Steve Lacy, Cecil Taylor, Marilyn Crispell, and Archie Shepp. A significant number of Louis Moholo-Moholo’s recordings, including his Dedication Orchestra project, are available from Ogun Records.


Zim Ngqawana
Having worked in several bands, including a late incarnation of Pacific Express, Zim Ngqawana was amongst the first jazz graduates from the University of KwaZulu Natal. He subsequently studied in the United States with Yusef Lateef, Max Roach and Archie Shepp and went on to forge strong links with Norwegian musicians resulting in San Song (1996) and ‘Zimology’ (1998). ‘Zimphonic Suites’ (2001) and ‘Vadzimu’ (2003) both saw Ngqawana working with South African musicians, notably Herbie Tsoaeli (bass) and Andile Yenana (piano), and Gwen Ansell cites Ngqawana’s ‘vision of a South African avantgarde jazz voice drawing deeply on traditional Xhosa roots’ as largely responsible for making him one of South Africa’s best selling jazz artists. He directed the one hundred strong Drums for Peace Orchestra at President Mandela’s inauguration and has played with many musical luminaries including Moses Molelekwa, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Hugh Masekela. Many of Zim Ngqawana’s recordings are available on Sheer Sound.


Convenor Jonathan Eato is a composer and saxophonist and lecturers in music at the University of York
(UK).

Links
IMS SASRIM Conference 2010
SASRIM
IMS
Jonathan Eato

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The Best of Tete Mbambisa

Although he was very influential in many jazz musicians in South Africa, jazz pianist and composer Tete Mbambisa is one of our overlooked legends.

The first time I bought an album by Tete, was round about in 1979. Titled - "Did You Tell Your Mother". It was on casette. In fact I still have the casette case, but the casette is gone.

I did not know about Tete then, but the reasoning for buying it - Basil was playing on it.

The album was also released on cd. Currently it is very difficult to find, so if you see one, do not hesitate to buy it.
The musicians on this album are:
Tete Mbambisa - Piano
Basil "Manenberg" Coetzee - Tenor Sax and Flute
Zulu Bidi - Bass
Monty Weber - Drums

Sadly, except Tete, all these great musicians have passed on.

Rashid Vally was responsible for most of Tete's recordings and I think is also sitting on some of Tete's unreleased material. Today you rarely see any of Tete's music in the music shops.

The good news is that Tete recently compiled a cd which contain tracks from his albums:
Tete's Big Sound
Did You Tell Your Mother
Brothers

It is titled The Best of Tete Mbambisa.

This is the track listing:
Umtshakazi
Dembese
Unity
Black Heroes
Thembile's Workshop
Past Time
Nelson
Stay Cool
Trane Ride
Zukile

The cd is available from Tete. If you are interested in buying a copy, Please call me on 0833107556 or email me on capetownnatural@gmail.com

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