Funky Friday with South Africa's Spirits Rejoice

I've been thinking about Spirits Rejoice, the great South Africa jazz-rock fusion band, ever since I read a terrific paper about a bad musical.

Tyler Fleming presented a chapter of his forth-coming book about King Kong (the iconic South African musical of the '50s, not the giant ape) to a seminar at the University of Virginia's Carter G. Woodson Institute, earlier this week.  In it, he talked about the show's ill-fated revival of the late-'70s.  The production was a disaster, but, low and behold, the pit band was Spirits Rejoice, an epic group that South Africans still talk about.  Among its members were two musicians who went on to become true icons of South African music -- Sipho Gumede, the bassist, and Robbie Jansen, the saxophonist, flutist, and anti-apartheid activist.  Other members, like Mervyn Africa and Duke Makasi, had (and are having) important careers in South Africa and overseas.

This is some seriously good music, folks.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

Comments

[ekapa]

Was this group named after Albert Ayler's recording of the same name? Is there any connection with Louis Moholos' 1978 album of the same name?

[John]

@ekapa

According to Gwen Ansel's "Soweto Blues," the group was formed in 1974 by Gilbert Matthews, the drummer on this track, and Duke Makasi, who's playing sax. She says that they named it after the Albert Ayler tune.

That's all I know (until I get around to fully transcribing two long interviews that I did with Robbie Jansen about four years ago).