The day the piano went silent

The silent piano. Chris's beloved Bosendorfer at the Moulin in May 1990

Musician and visionary

(This was written on 26 May 2010)
Exactly 20 years ago today my brother, jazz pianist, composer, band leader, arranger, and visionary, left us after a painful struggle with cancer. He was older than me by almost exactly seven years. His name was Chris McGregor and he and his musicians between them put out some of the most amazing jazz, in trio, small group, and big band formats.
Chris was much more than a musician, though. He really was a visionary. Even the name of his big band, the Brotherhood of Breath, spoke about his vision. He was passionately committed to freedom, not only in the music, but in his home country of South Africa, which he left with his small group, the Blue Notes, in 1964, when apartheid was tightening its grip on the bodies and minds of the people.

Facing his death

I have written about him elsewhere so would just like to add here a paragraph from an article on him by renowned British jazz journalist Graham Lock, from his book Chasing the Vibration (1994). Lock interviewed Chris in September 1984.
“Chris McGregor looks more hippy sage than African. A tall, stocky, cheerful man with humorous eyes and a ready smile, his most distinctive features are a long grey beard and even longer grey hair worn in a ponytail that hangs all the way down to his ample waist. But African he is.”
Chris's widow, Maxine, wrote a book of her life with Chris. This was published in the US by Bamberger Books of Flint, Michigan, in 1995, and was called Chris McGregor and the Brotherhood of Breath, and subtitled “My Life with a South African Jazz Pioneer.”
Maxine wrote of Chris's philosophy of life:
“Because he was able to really accept life in its entirety, to accept all that came his way, to let go and not set such store on results (a philosophy of 'Whatever happens is the story'), Chris was able to take his life – and death – with a lightness, an expansiveness and a sense of humour that led to peace.”
And she wrote of her own experience of Chris's death:
“Certainly facing his death with him – because he seemed so much like a prolongation of myself – was identical to facing my own death, something that I had always avoided doing even with the deaths of my parents. It was an indescribable experience that has made me fear death no longer – Chris was making jokes ten minutes before he died – and gave me the courage not to hold myself back from life. For if you no longer fear death what is there to fear?”

The day he died

The day Chris died my then wife Joan and I were about to fly to France to be with him and his family. We realised that the situation was serious. We had been in daily telephonic contact with Maxine and she and Chris knew of our plans to come to them.
The 26th  May 1990 was also our father's birthday and so that morning we were getting ready to celebrate with him before flying out that evening when the call came from Maxine to say that Chris had just left us. To say we were shattered would be a vast understatement. I had spoken to Chris just a few evenings before and he had said, in his usual funny way, “I've been to the angels and they told me they weren't ready for me yet.”
In the interview with Lock Chris spoke of his inspiration, what kept him going: “I guess you have to approach it with your instincts, just grab hold of whatever's coming and follow it through.
“Really, that's all. That is a musician's work. It's a great life, too. I wouldn't edit my story at all. When I think back there's nothing I regret, nothing that seems to me to have been wrong or off-key.
“You have to be 50 years old to realise, though. That's maybe something there is to regret, that we get too soon old and too late smart.”

Hazel Miller, Chris and Maxine at the Moulin

We went to France, to the Moulin de Madone, where Chris and Maxine had lived since 1973 in the South West, where we all tried to support each other in our grief and loss. Wherever we looked there were reminders of that great spirit who had lived there, and who had made such great music, and brought so much joy to others with that music.
And I was grateful to have known him, to have called him, in blood and in spirit, my brother.
This little poem is by way of my tribute to him, my remembrance of his African-ness, so it is writtne somewhat in the style of a traditional Xhosa praise poem and using, in typical call and response style, two little phrases from two Xhosa songs, Thula Sana (Sleep my Child) and Thula Sizwe (Be still, My People).

The day the piano went silent

The day the piano went silent
thula sana
the day the piano stopped singing
thula sana
the day your fingers stopped dancing
thula sana
that day our hearts went quiet
thula sizwe

Now the piano song is stilled
thula sana
And our hearts are stilled with pain
thula sana
We long to hear that song again
thula sana
The way our ears were filled
thula sizwe

The way our ears were filled
thula sana
With the song of the beating heart
thula sana
But now that heart is stilled
thula sana
The heart that gave us love
thula sizwe

O brother of mine, I miss you so
thula sana
My sister is weeping also
thula sana
Your songs are still in our hearts
thula sana
And their rhythms still mark our paths
thula sizwe

The hills and valleys of our youth
thula sana
Are waiting for the song's rebirth
thula sana
And the wind blowing over the hills
thula sana
Still cries out your name to the earth
thula sizwe.

You left us before we were ready
thula sana
Before we knew how to sing
thula sana
But now in our sadness we sing
thula sana
And the people will join our song
thula sizwe

Copyright Notice

The text and all images on this page, unless otherwise indicated, are by Tony McGregor who hereby asserts his copyright on the material. Should you wish to use any of the text or images feel free to do so with proper attribution and, if possible, a link back to this page. Thank you.
© Tony McGregor 2010

Chris McGregor – the posthumous albums

When South African exile musician Chris McGregor died in May 1990, there was already a respectable, though not entirely representative, discography of his work, both in Europe and in South Africa. But like any jazz musician, he played gigs all over the UK and Europe, some of which were recorded, but never released.
Since his death a number of albums of previously un-released material have come out and they fill in the gaps most admirably. The albums are both of live gigs and studio recordings and they make interesting listening.
The last album that Chris recorded with the Brotherhood of Breath in a studio was the great Virgin release Country Cooking (1988) (released again in 2001 on French label Great Winds/Musea). It is a great album, possibly the greatest Brotherhood album.
In 1989 Chris was on tour with the Brotherhood with guest artist Archie Shepp. They played a concert at the Banlieues Bleues in Paris which was released as En Concert a Banlieues Bleues in 1989 on the French label 52 Rue Est. This album features some great solos by the guest and the usual band members, but unfortunately it also features a rather out of tune piano. Chris had wanted to stop the release of the album, feeling it was not up to standard, but for contractual reasons the release had to go on. The music is nevertheless great – a wonderful song called “Sangena” sung by Sonti Mndebele, with the band roaring enthusiastically behind her, is just a delight.
The band was on tour again in early 1990. Chris fell ill on the tour and died before it had been completed. The following are the releases of previously unreleased recordings issued after Chris's death

SA Exiles' Thunderbolt

In 1986 Chris put together a band which he called the “South African Exiles' Thunderbolt.” This band was in a sense a musical response to the situation back in South Africa where then President P.W. Botha had decreed a “State of Emergency”, basically martial law, in an attempt to contain the rising resistance to apartheid. Personal freedoms and other freedoms like that of the press were being systematically, sometimes quite brutally, suppressed. People lived in constant fear and anger, and violence was increasing dramatically. At the forefront of the resistance, though not of the violence, was an organisation called the United Democratic Front (UDF).
The Thunderbolt went on tour through Europe playing many festivals and other gigs. This album was recorded at Mainz, Germany, on 17 May 1986.
Chris wrote the following “personal statement” to explain how he saw the Thunderbolt project: “Humanity is essentially a unity. The realisation of this unity on earth is our greatest task today. This is not idealistic – it is the only chance the human race has to survive on this earth. We come from a society in which separateness – apartheid – is institutionalised. The destructive power of this separation becomes daily more obvious. We wish our Thunderbolt to be a celebration of the end of separateness and its concomitant fascist oppression – for we know that the present murderous attacks on innocent and powerless people represent the dying throes of a monster. Our music, song and dance are also an affirmation of human values – we give them to show appreciation to those who realise that our struggle is theirs also. The world wide interest in events in South Africa and near universal condemnation of apartheid is a potent indication of the dawning unity of humankind.” (from the liner notes of the CD).
The musicians on the gig were, with one exception, South Africans long in exile: Dudu Pukwana, the ebullient alto player; Johnny Mbizo Dyani and Ernest Mothle, great bassists, great musicians, great people; Gilbert Matthews, master drummer; Pinise Saul, wonderful singer; and great guitarist Lucky Ranku, although he is not, for some reason, credited.
One of the outstanding tracks is “Magwazakazo” which features Ranku in a performance of rare beauty. Another track of note is “UDF” composed by Dyani in tribute to the organisation “back home.”
The album was released in 1997 by Popular African Music, a label of Günter Gretz.

The Cuneiform Albums

Cuneiform Records of Silver Spring, Maryland, USA, released three live albums of Brotherhood of Breath gigs.
The first of these was called Travelling Somewhere and was recorded in January 1973 in Berlin. It was exceptionally well recorded and shows the Brotherhood in fine fettle. The line up consists of Harry Beckett, Mark Charig and Mongezi Feza (trumpets), Nick Evans and Malcolm Griffiths (trombones), Mike Osborne, Evan Parker, Dudu Pukwana and Gary Windo (saxes), Chris McGregor (piano), Harry Miller (double bass) and Louis Moholo-Moholo (drums).
The second, released in 2004, is a double album called Bremen to Bridgwater and actually covers three gigs: the first gig was a Radio Bremen concert at Lila Eule in June 1971; the second gig was at the Bridgwater Art Centre, Bridgwater, England in February 1975; the third, also at the Bridgewater, in November 1975.
The third album, called Eclipse at Dawn, was released in 2008 and was recorded in November 1971 at the Berliner Philharmonie Jazztage.
These three albums show the Brotherhood in great form. The Bremen to Bridgwater album has several tracks of extended playing featuring the trademark Brotherhood mix of great playing to written charts with some ecstatic moments of free playing – order dissolving into chaos and coming back to order again, which was Chris's great genius, being able to write charts of exceptional beauty while feeling comfortable to let the players also express their own ideas and feelings.
There are on this album also two tracks simply called “untitled original”, one by that wonderful British alto player Mike Osborne and one by Chris.
The Bridgewater album also has a great mix of great names in British and European jazz in the lineup: Harry Beckett on trumpet; Elton Dean and Mike Osborne on alto; Nick Evans and Malcolm Griffiths on trombone; Evan Parker and Alan Skidmore and Gary Windo on tenors; and of course the great South Africans Dudu Pukwana on alto; Mongezi Feza on trumpet; Harry Miller on bass and Louis Moholo-Moholo on drums. A powerful line up indeed, with Chris urging the whole outfit on from the piano.
The Eclipse at Dawn album has more modest line up that still burns with bright energy: the ever-steady Harry Beckett and Marc Charig on trumpet; Nick Evans and Malcolm Griffiths on trombone; Harry Miller on bass; Louis Moholo-Moholo on drums; Dudu Pukwana on alto and Alan Skidmore and Gary Windo on tenor.
All three albums are superb productions with great liner notes and photos. More about them can be found here: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/brotherhood.html

The Fleg'ling Albums

In 2008 English record company Fledg'ling released two albums which had been recorded in 1969 by producer Joe Boyd and not released at the time. As Boyd writes in the liner notes to the first of these albums, Up To Earth, “It's hard to remember why this record never got released. I suppose it was because my relationship with Polydor had soured and my new ally, Island Records, was not exactly a jazz label.”
“I do remember,” he goes on, “however, how exciting were the sessions.”
These two albums, Up To Earth, which features a septet of the best of jazz musicians playing in Britain at the time, and Our Prayer, showcase Chris's music starting to evolve from its roots into a new space and energy.
The musicians on Up To Earth were some British musicians Chris enjoyed playing with, and the US/French bassist Barre Philips. The others in the septet were John Surman on bass clarinet or baritone sax; Evan Parker on tenor; and the South Africans Dudu Pukwana on alto, Mongezi Feza on trumpet and Louis Moholo-Moholo on drums. Danny Thompson replaced Barre Philips on one track.
Our Prayer was a trio date with Barre Philips on bass and Louis Moholo-Moholo on drums. It ranges from jaunty African rhythms to some rather free playing with Chris's percussive playing keeping it all together.
As Boyd wrote in his liner notes to Up To Earth: “One day, when critics start to absorb the compositions, the arrangements, the orchestras, the tours, the solos, the visions, the leadership and the musicians he inspired, Chris McGregor will be appreciated for the giant he was.”
More information about these two albums, plus the Chris McGregor re-releases by Fledg'ling, can be found here: http://www.thebeesknees.com/?cat=10
Fledg'ling have undertaken a “campaign to document Chris McGregor’s Witchseason recordings from the late 1960s early 1970s”, of which these two albums are a part.
These two albums can also be downloaded from emusic, as well as the other Fledg'ling releases.

Township Bop

The final album of these posthumous releases is a curious one, curious in how it came about. It is called Township Bop and was released in 2002 by Proper Records. The 14 tracks on the album were all recorded in the Cape Town studios of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in early 1964. How the tapes of these recordings came into the possession of Proper Records is something of a mystery, and one which perhaps we should not delve into too deeply.
What is interesting about these tracks is that they were the first recordings made by the group which Chris put together in Cape Town in the early 1960s and which soon became known as the Blue Notes.
Chris was experimenting with different musicians and different ideas and with these musicians soon went on a tour of South Africa just before leaving for the Antibes Jazz Festival where the Blue Notes created quite a stir that year, European jazz fans never having heard something like this from South Africa before. It was an eye-opener to many that such music was happening there.

Exuberance

Chris's beloved Bosendorfer at the Moulin after his death

Altogether these seven albums add considerably to the richness of the heritage of the South African exile musicians. They are important documents of the South African jazz diaspora. They are a great source of wonderful, exciting and original jazz, with a typically South African edge despite the European influences. To quote Joe Boyd again: “Loud, wild, fast, abstract playing to be sure, but it seemed that for them, the best revenge on the murderous Boers was not anger, but joy and yes, exuberance.” And these albums are all full of that.

Copyright Notice

The text and all images on this page, unless otherwise indicated, are by Tony McGregor who hereby asserts his copyright on the material. Should you wish to use any of the text or images feel free to do so with proper attribution and, if possible, a link back to this page. Thank you.
© Tony McGregor 2010

Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath - Spiritual Brotherhood

This is the second part of the Brotherhood of Breath story and was published in the South African jazz journal TwoTone in October 1992. The first part was was called Prophets Without Honour, which was published in the same journal in September 1992.

Brotherhood of Breath's 1971 album was followed by a second RCA release the following year, Brotherhood.

In 1974 came a live album recorded at the jazz festival in Willisau, Switzerland. This featured an impressive number by famous Nigerian percussionist Tungi Oyelana called, appropriately enough, Tungi's Song, featuring a breathtaking solo from Mongezi Feza (trumpet).

Chris had met Tungi during a six-week visit to Nigeria in 1969, while he was writing the score for a movie version of Wole Soyinka's play, Kongi's Harvest. Sadly, the movie was never released and the recorded score is still gathering dust in a tape vault somewhere. Any offers for local release from a record company - I'm sure it would be a commercially viable project?

Another live album was recorded at Toulouse in France in 1977. It contained only three tracks - but what great tracks they are: Chris' own Sunrise on the Sun, Mongezi's lovely Sonia and Dudu Pukwana's Kwhalo.

On this date the band featured two South African basses - Mbizo Dyani and Harry Miller. In the liner notes Keith Beal wrote that the South Africans in the band "...will tell you that all music is a religious experience." That was certainly true of the Brotherhood in all its incarnations: the music exhuded a spiritual quality which reflected the vision of all its members.

Another highly-charged album was Yes Please, recorded at the time of the 1981 Angouleme Jazz Festival - not a live album but one which shows a 17-member line-up in great form.

For me, one number which seems to epitomise the spiritual quality Beal refers to is Uqonda from this Angouleme album. Hearing Shololo Mothle lay down the theme with support from Peter Segona on trumpet and Bruce Grant's flute obligato is an emotionally involving excperience.

In 1988 Virgin released possibly the greatest Brotherhood album, Country Cooking, which has been available in South Africa for some time, but only in limited quantities.

In 1989 the band toured Europe with US reedman Archie Shepp. One of the concerts was released on CD in France - the last Brotherhood album with Chris at the piano. On this CD they paly typical Brotherhood numbers like Country Cooking and Sweet as Honey, as well as two Shepp numbers, Steam and Bessie Smith's Blues, the latter featuring some great blues shouting by Shepp himself.

Brotherhood's story is a great chapter in then history of South African music. Sadly, its one little known to most South African music lovers. There is talk of some members of the band visiting the country later in the year. Maybe that will provide the opportunity for jazz fans to read at least a little of this lost chapter.

A short discography of the Brotherhood of Breath

Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath RCA Neon 1971

Brotherhood RCA Victor 1972

Live at Willisau Ogun 1974

Live at Toulouse: Procession Ogun 1978

Yes Please In and Out 1981

Country Cooking Virgin 1988

Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath with Archie Shepp 52 Rue Est 1989

Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath

This article was originally published in the South African jazz journal TwoTone in October 1992. The editor introduced the piece with this superscript header: "In the first of a two-part series, Tony McGregor uses the re-release of a little-known classic as an opportunity to review the recording career of the Blue Notes and Brotherhood of Breath and argue that tragically, they remain in South Africa Prophets Without Honour."

For nearly thirty years, only a few diehard fans knew the album existed.

Now Gallo/Teal has re-released Jazz: The African Sound, a gem of an album by Chris McGregor and the Castle Lager Big Band. It was recorded in 1963, a year before Chris and five fellow-musicians left South Africa, never to record or play together here again.

The re-release is a poignant reminder of how much we South Africans have paid, in cultural terms at least, for apartheid.

Even most serious South African jazz fundis (fundi - a South African word meaning one who knows, an expert) are unaware that a group of six South African musicians turned the European music scene upside down from the mid-Sixties on.

Never mind the British Musicians' Union and Equity bans - apartheid drove these musicians out of South Africa and kept their immeasurable contribution to South African music a secret from most Sou8th Africans.

Perhaps the opening up of South Africa and the slow and painful demise of apartheid will at least bring appreciation for the legacy of those musicians who, long before Paul Simon and the rest, saw the huge potential of our indigenous musical heritage. Dud Pukwana, Mongezi Feza, Nikele Moyake, Johnny Mbizo Dyani, Louis Tebogo Moholo and Chris McGregor, calling themselves "The Blue Notes", left South Africa in 1964 after a nation-wide tour, to play at the Antibes-Juan-les-Pins Jazz Festival on France's famed Cote d'Azur, where they attracted very favourable critical notice. They went on to busk around Europe for a year before settling in Britain where they promptly began blowing up quite a storm.

In the words of British jazz critic and author Valerie Wilmer, they "literally upturned the London jazz scene, helping create an exciting climate in which other young players could develop their own ideas about musical freedom."

Wilmer described the change brought about by The Blue Notes like this: "There were times when rooms more accustomed to the anodyne four-in-a-bar jocularity of an Acker Bilk took on the gritty character of a Soweto shebeen..."

Some of this character and energy can be heard on the relatively few recordings made by the band - what a shock numbers like Don't Stir the Beehive, We Nduna and others must have been to most British jazz fans.

From the energetic core of The Blue Notes McGregor developed his next big band, called the Brotherhood of Breath, reflecting in the name something of Chris's deeply-felt belief about music transcending and breaking down what he termed "outdated concepts of national identity and the nation state."

The band went through a number of incarnations from its formation until Chris' death at 53 in May 1990. Over the years it became what Dutch jazz writer Frits Lagerwerff called "the best free jazz big band in the world."

It was formed early in 1967 and had its first public outing at the famed Ronnie Scott's "Old Place" in March of that year. Clive Crickmer of Melody Maker was moved to write of its debut: "This must be it. The most urgent, and explosive, and powerfully swinging new big band to have appeared in years."

In the Daily Telegraph (yes, indeed!) Peter Clayton wrote about the "kwela jauntiness...plus a sort of ceremonial abandon which seems to inform some of Dudu Pakewana's (sic) more inspired flights."

In an interview at the time (with Chris Bird of Melody Maker) Chris said: "I'm not interested in that highly organised, compositional aspect of big band music, I go for moods, for feelings and textures and most of my things are very sketchy. That way the guys themselves can contribute more to what's going on."

In another interview at that time he said: "There are so many ways of making music and they all interest me."

Tragically, to my knowledge at least, no recordings of this band exist. At the time journalist Miles Kington wrote that soem of Chris' South African recordings (Jazz: The African Sound, in fact) were available to Decca, "but there seems little hope of their becoming more than merely available."

Kington prophetically continued: "This is a great shame because by the time these bands (he was writing about the Brotherhood as well as Graham Collier's septet and the Mike Westbrook Band) are well-known enough to force companies to record them, whole stages of their development will have vanished forever."

The band did not last long and there was a three-year gap before it was reborn, but what a rebirth it was.

"If anyone tells you that happiness has gone out of jazz, tell them about the Brotherhood of Breath," wrote Valerie Wilmer in Melody Maker. "If anyone says that the New Music is committed to overtones of anger and hatred, tell them about Chris McGregor's Big Band. If anyone asks you where have all the firemen gone, tell them about Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath.

"And say it loud, for if you don't, the band will stow away their charts and fold up their music stands for another three years," she continued. "They keep on trying to tell us that jazz is dead and rock's the thing, but not so, folks. With men like McGregor's around, jazz will never die."

The band, in its second incarnation, got its recording break in 1971 when RCA chose it to launch their new Neon label and over the following years in its various versions, made some outstanding recordings. Limited availability in South Africa has meant that these are all too little-known.

A total of seven Brotherhood albums were released: two on the RCA label, two on Ogun, and one on Virgin. The other two were released on French labels only.

This period also saw many concert, festival and club appearances and many ups and downs for Chris and the other Blue Notes pioneers.

The Brotherhood fluctuated in size from around ten to around 17, and Chris went out of his way to find musicians from many different backgrounds to bring their own particular gifts and insights to the music.

But it was always the South African core of musicians who contributed theior energy and the creative edge to the band. The music, however "far out" it became, however "free", was always grounded in African harmonies and rhythms.

The South Africans in the early Brotherhood included Mongezi Feza (trumpet), Dudu Pukwana and Ronnie Beer (saxes), Harry Miller (bss) and Louis Moholo (drums). By the early Eighties the new generation of South African members were Brian Abrahams and Gilbert Matthews (drums), Ernest Shololo Mothle (bass) and Peter Segona (trumpet).

By the late Eighties the band included, besides the now "older" generation represented by Mothle and Matthews, "younger" musicians like Claude Deppa (trumpet), Frank Williams and Robert Juritz (saxes).

Singers like Peggy Phango, Phinise Saule, Sonti Mndebele and Aura Lewis sang with the Brotherhood from time to time. Cosmo Pieterse recited his poems to their backing.

The longest serving member of the Brotherhood is trumpeter Harry Beckett, the only person besides Chris to have been in all the band's various incarnations.

Two women have played with the band - Annie Whitehead on trombone and Caroline Collins on cello. And if the cello is an unusual instrument in a big band, Brotherhood has also featured a bassoon (Robert Juritz) and has had from time to time two basses and two drummers together in its line-up (coincidentally one each French and South African - namely Didier Levallet and Ernest Mothle on basses and Jean-Claude Montredon and Brian Abrahams on drums).

Beside compositions by Chris and other Blue Notes' members the band has played songs by Makaya Davashe (Lakutshon' iLanga), Mike Osborne (Think of Something), trombone player Radu Malfatti (the exciting Yes Please), Ernest Mothle (Thunder in the Mountain) and George Lee (Big G). And the surviving original members of the Blue Notes were meanwhile all actively pursuing their own individual musical careers.

Mbizo Dyani, Dudu Pukwana and Louis Moholo were playing with some international jazz greats like Steve Lacy, Don Cherry and John Tchicai as well as then also expatriot fellow-South Africans Abdullah Ibrahim, Hugh Masekela and others.

Some of these recordings have been seen on local record shop shelves, but they have certainly not been given the exposure they deserved. Ironically, musicians who were sought out by European and US musicians, had less success in their own country than these very same international performers.
It is still easier to get albums by Max Roach than Louis Moholo, David Murray than Dudu Pukwana and John Patitucci than Mbizo Dyani, despite the international acclaim for these South Africans' talent.