Over the last few days, I've spent many blissful hours listening to the late Bheki Mseleku's 2003 album "Home at Last." It's quickly become one of my favorite CDs.
On this occasion, Bheki, who was one of South Africa's best known composers and pianists, assembled a genuinely all-star band -- Feya Faku, trumpet and flugelhorn, Enoch Mthalane, guitar, Herbie Tsoaeli, bass, Morabo Morojele, drums, and, on tenor sax, Ezra Ngcukana, who passed away earlier this summer. Ezra was one of the unsung heroes of South African music, and it's great to hear him on the album.
"Mamelodi" is one of the highlights. Enjoy!
"Home At Last" is certainly a brilliant recording, one where Mseleku's restless wanderings through musical, terrestial, and sometimes astral worlds, seemed to finally all come together. Surrounded by brilliant homeboys who understood what he was doing, knew what he wanted to do, and where he wanted to go, Mseleku hit that sweet spot and seemed to have been able to go home again.
Yet it's bittersweet because that triumphant declaration of arrival became,in retrospect, a goodbye as shortly after that, Mseleku's career and life started to come apart before ultimately imploding. When I listen to this cd I like to think of it as a testament of Mseleku having finally found what he'd been looking for all his life, and therefore free to leave, both literally and figuratively, to continue his journey elsewhere.
Posted by: ekapa | 06 September 2010 at 12:38 PM