To the pioneering South African musicians AND YOUR LOVING SUPPORTIVE FAMILIES we are blessed to have you as our guides: For it is through your journey that we may gauge our own and through your love that we may actualise and awaken.

These are the teachers who had lived their lessons for all to learn from

The spirits that move
Masters of awareness
Honouring the LIGHT

Moses Molelekwa, Bheki Mseleku, Johnny Fourie, Winston Mankunku, Allen Kwela, Alex Van Heerden, Robbie Jansen, Gito Baloi, Ezra Ngukana, Dolly Rathebe, Miriam Makeba, Busi Mhlongo and Zim Ngqawana. Abdullah Ibrahim, Louis Moholo, Theo Bophela, Mac Mckenzie, Madala Kunene, Philip Thabane, Hugh Masakela, Pat Matchikiza, Joseph Shabalala, Hilton Schilder, Sathima Bea Benjamin, Carlo Mombelli, Jannie Van Tonder, S'Dumo Ngidi, Eric Duma, Marcus Wyatt, Madala Kunene … etc. etc. etc.

All musicians of South African Jazz for all time, we love to hear from you, we long to hear from you.

PREAMBLE

All the accumulated secrets and mysteries of the past, well… Now is the time to let it all out. As a people our liberation is no longer from fascist leadership, the necessity for liberation is internal. We seek to liberate ourselves to our own potential. To achieve this we require the knowledge of our roots.

One will never neglect the fact that South African Jazz is built on the foundation of her musicians, her champions, brothers, comrades and friends. The highest honours go to them.

I was awakened by the patience, understanding, tolerance and forgiveness of many. Their stories are offered in edited transcripts.

Jazz is alive until every living soul has been liberated of fear, hatred and been firmly planted in natures beauty and the honesty of the moment.

It has been thirteen years since this story had started (for me, the jazz journalist) and in that time many brilliant brethren have joined the great jam in heaven. However, with the resilience of a weed or an indigenous plant, South African Jazz has not been forgotten nor disappeared. It is the strongest it has ever been. It is emerging into the light of a NEW golden period of self-realization.

History repeats itself in cycles of different lengths depending on the scope of your perspective. South African Jazz is a microcosm where history is repeating itself. From my studies, we are coming into a golden era and a South African jazz cultural revolution. It is not our first, it is our fifth and for the sake of this book will be referred to as the fifth ray.

Five is an important number in music. A significant harmonic interval is the musical fifth. This dominates Western harmonic musical theory in the use of the ‘cycle of fifths'. Thus the fifth ray of South African Jazz is a significant interval, yet it is not perfect.

Thus, there is something here for everyone to learn not only jazz lovers. As an example, when jazz comes to mean freedom it can turn any heartbeat into a thunderous acknowledgement of self realisation. Self realisation leads to self actualisation. Self actualisation is belonging…

At the core of Jazz is music. Jazz is music, ‘jussst' music, spoken in a gravelley blues voice. And music has always been part of our existence on planet Earth. Goethe stated the planets and heavens make music, the Buddha used the sound of the lyre to articulate the ‘middle way,' and quantum science reveals ‘super strings' as being the matter and make up of life. To view absolutely everything as music could lead to a harmonic understanding of our lives.

As an example, biologist William Brown describes the work of Dr Mae Wan Ho, known as Quantum Jazz :

“The cellular constituents that make us up, communicate with light and with sound. This is a case in point for the microcosm affecting the macrocosm. When you go outside at sunset you have the birds communicating with each other with sound . The molecules of the body do the same thing. This is quantum jazz because it is in a quantum kind of state. It is unifying the whole and even though it is functioning as a whole, each part maintains its absolute uniqueness, in a sense. From the microscopic to the macroscopic, that is actually how unity is attained . It is how you make a unified society, by allowing every individual to be their complete self. That is how nature works at the subatomic level.”

The spirit world loves music.

“Ancestral spirits mediate between the living and God, the supreme being 'Mulingqangi'. His/Her pleasure is music and dance.”

This is why Fela Kuti called his venue The Shrine and this is why Billy Higgins prayed before he played. And there are many stories that correlate music to the celestial realms. The spiritual significance of music is seen in very ancient music styles, such as the traditional Bushmen music, Tibetan music and the compositions of Isaiah Shembe. Through this music the participant reaches a meditative state. It is in the meditative state that much is accomplished for the human being. And of course jazz is no different, having its foundations in the sacred nature of music.

Jazz is where it all started for me. I needed jazz to discover who I am. And this is my purpose here. Our existence is built on realising our potential and being our best and a love of jazz is the avenue leading to the secret to life, to finding oneself and becoming ourselves .

The story of South African Jazz is a profound example of the power of the human endeavour to bring change, love, peace and healing back to earth. In every generation of South African Jazz the idiom that is South African Jazz music, takes on a new and heightened purpose.

South African Jazz is a universal sound. The first ray of South African Jazz was the dream of unity . The second ray was global connection . The third ray of South African Jazz was the spear of liberation , the fourth ray the hand of compassion and the fifth ray of South African jazz is the tool of transformation , and the sixth ray oneness with GOD .

Sound is a way of telling the truth. In Indian religion, ‘Brahman' refers to one who knows the Absolute Truth. Are we reaching the highly prophesized time of the emergence of sound Brahmans, in fact the elevation of our vibration, all and all and Earth included? Yes we are. We are collectively turning our attention through the process of intention.

Things seems so simple when you can bring yourself into the present moment. As Miles Keylock informed me: On a previous occasion an interviewer was to ask Louis Moholo, “what are you listening to?” hoping to irk out some tips on his musical collection at home. He answered, “You, I am listening to you!”

CHARLES LLOYD (saxophonist performed at Cape Town festival 2010). He spoke during a press conference thus :

“Musical vibrations have the potential to touch the spirit through soul vibrations. I live in the now. I am not comparing. Music transports us and lifts us up. Inspiration. Music is a nice way to matriculate on Earth, as if flying on the wings of a bird. Whatever you are looking for is looking for you. We are spirits passing through. This is not our home, we must care for one another.

“You get up in the morning. You strip bare, you go fresh, with beginners mind, you rise above (life) and make a contribution. The sound is available to all of us. It is a song of eternity, grace and forgiveness. You want to become better and suppler and go deep and the sound is there to verify your process and your truth. Music is a transforming power, it is a language universal – it goes direct. Sound transfers molecules. As a sound Brahman you are part of something bigger than the small self. You are in service. Billy Higgins (saxophonist and friend) was always praying and asking the creator for it and looking East. I am a dreamer. The creator has a carrot on the stick kind of dance and I am getting closer and so far away. You can't have a perfect score praise. What informs me is younger than spring. I am interested in the energy going up and not going down.”

RACHELLE FERREL public workshop at the same event said

“We tap into the primordial soup of creativity and we come back bearing gifts. Music is a metaphor for life. To be a great artist one must be in touch with everything, embrace everything so we can translate it. Like Yoga, it is a lifelong discipline. Through the pain, is beauty, the power of the Divine, the power of Love, of will and of choice. It is a profound privilege to be a part of it. I am an artist I can't afford to be polite. I stay in the struggle of staying true to myself.”

When asked why it took so long for Rachelle Ferrel to come to the attention of the public she answered …

“ When I did come to your attention, it was me and not a representation. Once I got into the music industry it was more about tacking than nurturing. When you have gifts, you must protect the gift.”

"Music is everything it begins with the rhythm of the heartbeat. In making music, first thing – warm up. Turn the attention inward to nurture ourselves in order to be able to nurture our voice. Through breath we translate energies, feelings, emotions into sound."

INTERVIEW THEO BOPHELA 03/11/2010 Lunch-hour Bat Centre.

Theo Bophela and his big band Umkhumbane perform regularly. The Bophela teaches at the Bat Centre and has recently completed the writing of his autobiography.

Umhambi is a composition by Theo Bophela situated in the SABC Western Cape Archives. I asked him the origin of that composition:

“I wrote it when I was in African Jazz and Variety show . African Jazz and Variety show had so much to do with me. It was my first time to go to Joburg. When I got to Joburg I stayed with a friend who was on the show. What did I know, that he was staying in Pimville! The old Pimville and on the very day when we arrived at his home he sent a child to go and buy something for us to eat for supper. The child went to buy the stuff and he came back running and crying. We said what's the matter? The child said they had robbed him of the money he was going to buy the stuff with. My friend who I was going to stay with immediately changed from a nice guy and he went chasing out. Three minutes later he came back and I could see he was a changed man. He was known around this place for what he was. He was a musician but he was a rafian in himself. That was the first experience I had in Joburg. And then what happened next time around I went to Joburg again, I didn't stay with him so I went to stay with somebody else and of all places it was a shebeen and they had a room for me. I could stay on my own. Whilst the shebeen business was going on I was in another part of the house. Where I was staying they had an acoustic piano, a beautiful thing, brand new. Where did you get this brand new piano like this? I was told the boys brought it there. The boys were gangsters. I don't know where they got it from. Anyway a piano is a piano whether it's stolen or not. It is a piano. I used to play a lot on that piano and that is when I started missing my piano at home in Durban. I said to myself, hey I have a piano at home that is good and I am so far away. Umhambi means a guy who goes around, who is never stationary. I was remembering, I left my piano at home, my wife and I had a kid already and all of a sudden I felt homeless again. I was still young enough not to care for things as watching kids and things like that. That is how I wrote Umhambi in that shebeen, I was missing home.”

Umkhumbane is the name of Theo Bophela's band. I asked him the origin of that name?.

“Umkhumbane was in Cato Manor. It was started with migrant workers coming to town and it boomed during the Second World War. People were coming to town and getting jobs in the sheep yards and a lot of employment because of this world war. They first lived in Umkhumbane in these shacks because when they knocked off of work they could go and sleep. A lot of people came into town and eventually grew up which lead to the need for schools to be built and churches and all that is called for to make up a nation or a settlement. It was a very special place because there wasn't anybody worthwhile who was not there. You found everything in Umhkumbane. You found school teachers, you found lawyers, you found all professions, gangsters, shebeen queens and anything that you can think of was there. There was robbing of one another. Most of our KZN musicians stayed there. I was there myself. I started my first year education at Umkhumbane government school. The government decided to build a location there. It was called Chesterville. It was named after the guy who was working inside of the pass in Ordinance Road. And so we grew up in Chesterville. Chesterville grew up to Kwa Mashu. There are musicians who come from there. Besides myself, there was Dalton Khanyile , even Madala Kunene came from there. We started in the times of early Chesterville. I was picked up by African Jazz and Variety show when it hit Durban in 1955. I was born in 1931. I started my schooling when I was about seven or six or thereabouts. It is all early thirties stuff.

“ YMCA is young mans Christian association and everything was going on. Boxing, dancing, through the YMCA. Alfred Nokwe was working at the municipal offices in Ordinance Rd. His wife was a singer. She was taught by a European lady. That lady organised tuition. Alfred Nokwe's whole family became musicians through that lady. His wife was singing classical music, some of his sons and his daughters are professional musicians to date, Tu Nokwe, Marilyn and some others.

“ Alfred Nokwe put on a play about Durban called Umkhumbane. It was written by Allan Paton . He became famous for writing the book ‘Cry the Beloved Country'. Todd Matchikiza did the music for the play. We all took part. I was involved in rehearsing the show using the piano and practicing with the choir individuals. I still wish that they could show that play. It had a lot to say in those days. It went down well during the struggle. It was run here at the City Hall. I can't remember how long it lasted.

“Todd Matchikiza came over weekends on Saturdays rehearse and rehearse and go back again. He used to leave things to me. He was busy there as a writer.

“There was a venue in town called the Durban International Club in Ploughwright lane, upstairs somewhere. As it says Durban International Club, it means as soon as you walk into that club forget about colour immediately; walk down and go to Ploughwright lane you are back to square one again. Needless to say it was pulled down by the then government. It was all over the world they had these clubs so you had a lot of visitors coming to the Durban club.

*

“ What brought me into being a musician was the first job I got. I got a job working for a radio. Inside here there was a guy from Australia he loved jazz so whenever he was testing radio he could use a record with a lot of jazz. That's how I got into music. I told this guy I would like to play piano too and he knew somebody who played piano. So I managed to get somebody to teach me piano and since then I was playing piano. Some of the big bands of the time started gunning for me. There were lots of big bands at that time influenced by Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington. Visiting negro guys brought LP's and so we got a lot of them. It was the time when jive was the thing. We had band competitions, dance competitions and so on and so on. The most popular place was YMCA . And there was this curfew going on. You can't be late at night and walk about. The most popular bands were Tom Damas Swingsters , Chromatics jazz band , Sundown jazz band from location Lamontville, the Shange brothers , they were brother musicians; drummer trumpeter, saxophonist, tenor saxophonist, bassist, guitarist all in one. They were all musicians except the sisters were not musicians but I believe they could sing well.

“There were no teachers because teachers were there but not for Africans. I suppose the fact that I worked with this European chap from Australia got me a teacher. I could not walk through the front door for my lessons. I walked through the back door and through the kitchen and when I finished I go out through the back again. There were a few white musicians, Boris Cohan played trumpet. He in fact gave tuition to the Swingsters jazz band.

“After the second world war we had some visiting musicians. I don't know who was sponsoring them. Like this famous teacher who wrote a lot of books in the States John Michigan he came here and gave us some workshops and that is when I first heard that jazz music has its own biography, own literature and own way of doing things. I learnt that from him. I had never heard that before it was a common thing in the States. Johnny Dempworth came into town. He was a big band leader in London, very famous. Even the clarinettist Benny Goodman came in and we had a session with him in Umlazi. We shared the stage with him. For him to be here and see him performs was quite an event.

Umkhambane band includes Jerry Kunene and Muntu Dube on Alto saxophones; S'thembiso Ntuli and Moses Sefatsa on tenor saxophones; Bheki Luthuli and Eric Duma on trumpets; Theo Bophela on piano; Mdu Mahlobo on guitar; Zithulele Dlamini on drums; KB Maphumulo on bass.

Xhosa Jazz

Around the 1930's Xhosa musicians moved to the port city of Cape Town from the Eastern Cape. They brought with them their traditional Xhosa melodies and their unique sense of musical improvisation.

Musical instruments would have come in on the ships with the sailors. Teachers of these instruments were probably scarce at this time.

During this period there were some brilliant musicians and one of the first known engine rooms for South African jazz was in Langa in Cape Town.

Christopher Columbus moved to Cape Town from the Eastern Cape and brought up a family of all boy musicians in the township of Langa. He brought up many bands in Langa as well. And he travelled back to the Eastern Cape (Nahoon) regularly and brought up many bands in the Eastern Cape.

Christopher ‘Columbus' was the pioneer and father figure of a school of music being birthed in Langa township Cape Town. Should we be able to return to the township of Langa in the middle of the 1940's we might find this pioneering musician, Christopher Columbus, in his yard practicing with other pioneering musicians and youthful up and coming musicians.

There is a recording in the SABC Western Cape Archives of an unnamed band of horns performing 'London Bridge is Burning Down,' in a dynamic harmony and improvisation. On further analysis you will find that the horn players included the up and coming generation of that day such as Winston Mankunku and the older generation players such as Cups n Saucers and Christopher Columbus.

This music school of Christopher Columbus Ngukana exposes the profoundly pleasurable nature of the learning through music exchange that exists between the older generation and the younger generation.

Ezra Ngukana was the youngest son of Christopher Columbus. He was a saxophone player.

The Interview

“I came out of a musical home my father was a musician and all my brother's musicians. I was the last to be expected to be a musician cos of not being a strong person physically. My first saxophone was not meant for me. It was meant for my elder brother. I put it up and fitted it myself using rubber hands and I played it. They never expected me to be a musician cos I grew up in church. As a child they used to take me to church a lot. They expected me to be a priest.

“ We come from a family grounded in mathematics. We are able to calculate our way through some Jazz obstacles. You know Jazz is full of obstacles. Maybe you are able to calculate all these things and play without cracking your hands. Once you open up your calculation then you can open up and play freely. Some people get stuck in playing because Jazz is about Improvising . Scientifically it can be 20% (improvising) and that 20% can free you to the other 80% like 80-20.”

“I was born in 54 but I started playing music in the late 60's I played with Dollar Brand when I was about 14 years old. In this big band, my first encounter was avant-garde.

“The record companies, they don't have a vision they are not innovative, and the government of yesteryear did not give much dedication to the people of the day. Then they killed it. In fact, because jazz and freedom go hand in hand if you are jazz orientated you are free from apartheid you know what I mean. In Europe there is an audience. From a marketing point of view, before you launch a product you do a market research. But, Jazz is not a marketing product. It's music and it's all about truth. It's quality. You have to come on to me to listen to Jazz. I am more like a doctor. You go to a doctor for an injection. In other words we are doctors to the spiritual world .”

“You know what's a joker? I was doing my standard 10 biology. I was interested in cells, the unicells in an animal: how it moves is it pushes itself through fluids going that way and it moves and that movement is called an amoeboid movement. Victor Ntoni the base player was still at high school. He had a chill and he did not have a title I told him to call it ‘amoeboid movement.' He loved the title and he recorded the song about a few years later with Allan Kwela through SABC. By virtue of the word movement that tune was never played on air. Just like that. I was fired from there. In 73 it was a mass expulsion so instead of going home I went on tour with DASKI, playing percussion and reciting. We were playing Molobo Music . At the same time from Pretoria they were raising funds for Steve Biko's movement so the special branch used to capture us.

“Between 1948 and 1960 what killed Jazz in South Africa was that the blacks could not play with whites. Understand it was the white musicians who wanted protection from the black guys. And that was a brain drain. All the musicians that survived went back to 8-5 jobs and they never played again. Cups and Saucer was the musician of the year in 1962 he has not played since.”

“ Mankunku comes from those hands and he comes from my fathers' hands. My father was playing with the guys overseas, so he stayed behind. They started working 8-5. How else will Mankunku survive this place? It was declared a colour preferential area. The coloureds were having a bomb in terms of economic empowerment. They had 8-5 jobs and they owned venues where we would play. They owned a lot of things but they could not produce horn players of calibre. So that's how myself and Mankunku survived. There was nothing they could do about it. We were just good, otherwise they would use their coloured friends. I remember a gig I did with Mankunku with ‘Works' the band. I was fired. No, no, Mankunku was fired. Then they got Basil Coetzee . Do you know why I was fired? Basil said that he wanted to play with Robbie Jansen . I got fired like that. But still the guys would come back to us. It was not even Jazz. It was more like fusion. They were influenced by Chicago and the Blood, Sweat and Tears. It was not Jazz. They never played Jazz.”

“So with this sort of Jazz not being played in the 70's, it threatened the sound of Jazz in South Africa. The result of the politics was people were not able to play? Do you think people went back to what they used to listen to, which was traditional music?”

“There were big bands. They were playing Jazz Pioneers . That music was dead because of the market overseas. When you go overseas, they say: “No man.” Hugh Masakela was taught by Miles Davis: ‘Just play your country music, you can't play Jazz.'

“For myself, Jazz is universal, it comes from myself, it comes from Africa, Europe it comes from America and it has been fused. Why can't it be a part of that Global sound? I can play it. Those other monkeys can't play it, that's why they play African Music! I believe that African music is folk music and it should be played by people on the ground. Me I am an artist. I am not a person on the ground, who just sings like you know what I mean. I create, I calculate. When I am on stage I improvise. Not the person on the ground who relies on the background which is rhythmic. The harmonic part is where the improvising part is. So, we are global, we are universal, we are musicians, I can play that music, what's the big deal.

“There is South African Jazz, although the architect player, what's his name? He does not believe in township jazz. He says jazz is American. I remember a guy teaching at Natal University from the States. I played my fathers' song ‘Chill Bra.' He played two chords and then he asked me to show him how to play that. You play within those two chords and create a massive sound. Like Canonball use to tell them, ‘African music is not the same thing as you say, but it comes out of the same thing.'

“ It revolves around the blues. I was teaching it in Natal. I was teaching there last year. It revolved around the blues, especially with us, the Cape Jazz. I don't mean coloureds, I am talking about Xhosa Africa Cape Jazz. OK! They are people of the South. The jazz here is more like the blues.

“We play well. It is more like the blues and that's it, that's the similarity. And that is why some say Jazz is American. They may have refined it there, but our Cape Town Mbaqanga is something else . It needs to be documented. Blacks don't explore, they don't even write, they don't even document things. If they had the government years ago they could have documented. There are lots of documentations. Even arts and culture is still not moving forward enough for me. I have retired into English, forgotten Xhosa. It has not even been developed. No government has put enough money into our languages. They have all been suppressed. I can tell you, it is very rich. It is unique, Cape town Jazz. It is a Mecca of Jazz.

“You know Jimmy Adams , he used to play with my father. He was telling Mac of Namaqua that these guys were playing langarm. Do you know what's langarm? It's ballroom. They decide to go to Langa. Do you know where Langa is? That is my home town, and that's were Dollar learnt his music too? That is where Jimmy Adams says he learnt his music. That's where the guys were grooving, during my father's time, you know what I mean. When I call Jimmy Adams, I call him the last of the minstrels, because there is a lot of that here.”

“Unfortunately there was an economic element in those days. I was young and knew nothing about money. You would pay 20 cents to go to a jam session. There used to be jam sessions every Sunday in Gugulethu. They had community centre's. Most people are missing that. Before the apartheid laws, people used to play at the city hall. I was not part of that era that happened in the 60's. In the late 60's, that is when the people where developing themselves within the townships. So it was really happening the jazz in its purest form. Not this rock and roll of George Benson.”

“I developed my playing without the influence of my parents because I did not even know I could play jazz. I was a sissy you know what I mean. Now when I play the jazz, I talk to my father. Sometimes when we are together and just chatting he gives me shit advise: he said that I must not read the newspaper because I will be a politician and he said that I must not play sport I would break my fingers and he said I must not play the blues. That's what my father told me, because the blues was just like folk music, African music as you would put it today. Although Cannonball says it repeats itself, it does not repeat itself. It comes out as the same thing. Basically it's improvising, to improvise as the tune is going, think about ideas, as I told you the 20%. That's what Jazz is all about.

“Also the thing we are getting from people as we talk is that Jazz is an ideology in the music world. This is not just musicians saying this but on the radio too. Jazz is very advanced. It absorbs other music genres. It seems to be more of an ideology of how music is formed?

“Jazz is all about freedom I remember a giant, Cecil Taylor. Not Cecil Taylor. Monk, the late, he said, ‘We got people who are defining this jazz. That is total shit man, freedom and jazz go hand in hand . If you can explain it, beyond that, then you are confusing yourselves. You just have to dig it or don't dig it, that's all. That's the bottom line about Jazz. You as a Jazz musician, Cecil Taylor said, you are your own academy that's it what more do you want.”

INTERVIEW LOUIS MOHOLO

"It's fantastic, I really have a good time. People like me hear, my friends are here. This is my beginning, this is my end. This is my home here.”

Louis Moholo was drummer with Chris Macgregor.

"It started to make sense. We were hot then. We were not messing around man. We were kicking and it hit. The people loved it. Yeah. Chris started to write. Then I started to tell Chris you better be serious because this music is out bra, and he said 'Louis, just thinking the same thing,' so we formed the band straight away."

Some of his recordings were playing in the background as he spoke.

"Feel my heart beating. This kicks my ass - this is what keeps me going? The music builds and falls, never soothing, never relaxing. It is chaotic. "I am a soldier by nature - I like to put up a fight. That's where the music took me - to fight to be on top, to stay on top.

"We were fighting on all cylinders. Everyone was changing to the avant-garde all over the place. It was a whole bunch of new stuff starting to bloom up. It was fashionable and intellectual. Oh yes sir and we enjoyed it. We break all the rules. We are not considering anymore to be conventional. We drop that and play what the heart says and we are quite a brotherhood of breath in what we are doing. It is a whole kind of heavenly music. It is so beautiful.

"There's a fight still burning inside. Let's face it the world is not right at the moment. As I am, I am a rebel - it hurts me. All these tragedies are an influence to us - it hurts. We apply this in a music form because that is all we know. Some like it hot, some like it cold – it's one of the same thing."

CHRIS MACGREGOR AND THE BLUE NOTES

Chris Macgregor was born in the Transkei and enrolled at The University of Cape Town. He was known as a hardworking and gifted student. Kwazulu Natal piano teacher Dot Hewett who was studying at UCT at the same time as Chris recalls enjoying listening through the doors of the practice rooms to his practice sessions. He exhibited tremendous enthusiasm and passion, ‘a divine sense of purpose.' A divine sense of purpose is really the recurring theme of this book. If you got that you are released from suffering, inferiority complexes and other mind games.

There is a famous story of how Chris met Dudu Pukwana: Chris was energetic and enthusiastic, always practicing and composing, and defying 'illegal gathering' laws in order to meet and play with the musicians he wanted to. And that's how the Blue Notes came together. Chris often went to The Vortex jazz club in Long Street, a popular venue where musicians jammed together. Dudu Pukwana was the regular pianist. He'd rehearse during the day, perform at nights and sleep in the basement. Chris and him talked about getting a band together, but they were both piano players. Dudu, however, had always wanted to play sax, so they hired one and the Blue Notes took off.

The Blue Notes gathered speed energy and interest, they toured the country. The Blue Notes were an all star band. The Blue Notes were a fully South African brought up and based band until '63. There is a great musical climax that is remembered by the Blue Notes winning first prize at the Cold Castle Jazz festival in Johannesburg. It was symbolic that this festival, the last of the greats, was sponsored by SAB, because such has been the tremendous damaging effect alcohol has had an arts and culture and jazz in general. This is a recurring theme and an important aspect to the fifth and final ray of South African Jazz. South African Jazz will take the lead in leading arts culture entertainment and media away from their interdependence and association with alcohol. Yet in 1963 Hitler's forces were on the march in South Africa and SAB was there secret weapon. Jazz musicians know about subversion, it is a kind of martial arts tactic where by you take the anger, hatred and rank negativity and purify it with sound vibration.

Chris put together a 17 piece band featuring some of the best musicians across the country as a symbolic climax to the end of a rich period of jazz. It was a last minute affair. Chris composed furiously, whilst Maxine arranged financing and facilities. Even though there was no time for rehearsing, the individual skill of the players saw the band to victory and a recording. This was their last as they joined the tremendous list of exiled musicians.

Maxine Macgregor witnessed the death of the Blue Notes band members, Mongezi Feza, trumpeter at the age of 27, Dudu Pukwana, Johnny Dyani and Chris.

She said, “Musicians are like sensitive flowers. When their muse dries up, they die.”

Funny how a life lived fully is often a short lived life. When Syd Kitchen died recently in Durban, Patrick Mackenzie quoted from the bible, “death is life lived half way.”

Louis Moholo is the last surviving member. In the year 2000, Louis was visiting Cape Town. I met him at his home in Langa. Louis was heading up a 23 piece big band called the Dedication Orchestra, playing rearranged classics from the Brotherhood of Breath and featuring a variety of famous European musicians. Listening to the Dedication Orchestra album 'Spirits Rejoice" is a wonderful experience, particularly when Louis sings out loud, “We Love You" : This is the message and the message is this! Love

Louis and I listened together to some of his music…

“Out of the silence, a dramatic frenetic series of cymbal thrashes broke, before the calming sanctity of a piano riff rose. More silence, a guitar - scratching, strumming, grinding over a drum beat that knows no time, a drum beat that seems beyond time. I can't hear the melody, I hear the rhythm I feel...

… the bass storming up and down the scales in a bebop fashion and the saxophone screeching, breathing, stopping and playing again as if saying something really intelligent and really important.”

This is the kind of ‘jazz journalism' I used to write in all the daily newspapers around 2000 AD. I made a living as a jazz journalist. These days there is none of that. The daily rags talk only about sex and money. Funny they call newspapers, rags! Sugar says ragtime jazz came from Capone's brothels and was a particular sound of music that indicated the whores were in menstruation. One wonders why newspapers got the name rag? Gratefully the internet has put them out of business. The power of the internet in the rising of the Sound of Jazz and the expression of joy is a tremendous aspect to this era.

PRELUDE TO A KISS : ABDULLAH IBRAHIM MEETS SATHIMA BEA BENJAMIN

During the late 1950's in Cape Town, Abdullah Ibrahim was known as 'Dollar' because of his enthusiasm for using the dollar to buy jazz records from sailors in the port. From a young age he was a well respected musician across many genres.

Sathima Bea Benjamin met Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim) at an audition for his band. She sang ‘Prelude to a Kiss,' the Duke Ellington song. How glorious is fate, how wondrous is destiny. During that very audition, at that very moment, they would not have known it. Abdullah and Sathima were to marry and Duke Ellington was to support their efforts in performing, recording and relocating abroad.

DISTRICT SIX ; SOPHIATOWN ; UMKHUMBANE
collaborative memoires

Jazz is a musical medium for finding yourself.

As Cape Town was engaged in expressing itself, and awakening to its unique nature, so the people of Johannesburg were expressing South African Jazz in their own way.

Thandi Klaasens was a famous model and singer in the golden era. Sadly, someone threw boiling water over her face through jealousy. Jealousy is a recurring theme in the entertainment world. It is the barrier to becoming. Thandi was scarred for life. Yet continued to sing and hold the memories of Sophiatown in her heart.

"Sophiatown was a very beautiful place. There was music everywhere, flowing out of every house, from every corner and every shebeen. Rhythm was the unsaid word. There was mbaqanga, marabi, kwela jive, and on Sundays the gospel choirs marched down Toby street singing, and we always joined them. And then there was jazz at night. We used to go to `Sis Petty's shebeen and watch the Jazz Maniacs and listen to recorded American jazzmen. Inside it was packed, you wouldn't be able to move. But when the jazz came on, those bodies made space. Nobody would be standing still. Outside, `Sis Petty's kids would be watching for the police, but the jazz was so good they would keep on coming inside. `Sis Petty would have to chase them out, and the men would carry on drinking as much as they could as quickly as they could, just in case the police arrived. Everybody used to meet there, musicians, artists, intellectuals, writers, politicians and boozers. And all of us, the young aspirants, were growing up in this cultural explosion, even Felicia [Mabuza Suttle]!"

Drum magazine journalists wrote about this multi-cultural urban environment. These fringe city suburbs were describes as diverse and flexible, hopeful and indestructible and endowed with a sense of community, vitality, vigour and excitement. All members of the community musicians, artists, politicians and leaders, creatives and administrators, revelled in an environment of sharing.

A society premised on sharing is the essence of jazz. It is love. And thus in South Africa we enjoyed a cultural explosion. And it went on against the backdrop of its absolute antithesis – the Nazism as proposed by the Nationalist Party of the time.

The cultural explosion was therefore short lived and frenetic. It could not sustain. Hatred and Love liveth not under the same roof!

There was tragedy, there was triumph. Drum magazine editor and founder Jim Bailey set up offices (that would eventually expand across the continent) in Sophiatown and created a bandstand of young journalists and talented individuals tasked with the glorious task of documenting the golden days of the South African cultural revolution.

This period is a sliver of our memory where pure love held back the forces of evil indefinitely. It was the awakening of what has become known as the ‘divine sense of purpose.' Life itself was a matter of Life or death! Life was lived with the pure light of togetherness, unity and oneness. Nothing can contain our love.

“Jazz is a music which has its roots in a life of insecurity, in which a single moment of self-realisation, of love, light and movement, is extraordinarily more important than a whole lifetime. From a situation in which violence is endemic, where a man escapes a police bullet only to be cut down by a knife-happy African thug, has come an ebullient sound more intuitive than any outside the US of what jazz is supposed to celebrate - the moment of love, lust, bravery, incense, fruition, and all those vivid dancing good times of the body when the now is maybe all there is." Lewis Nkosi, journalist, in Jazz in Exile, 1966

the government has demolishing the great jazz capitals of the urban areas District Six, Sophiatown and Cato Manor, killing and destroying at will.

The rank destruction of vibrant communities and relocation of human beings according to race, to concentration camps ensued. This was pure Nazism that the jazz musicians faced. It was known as the 'Verwoerd to Vorster' years.

Winston Mankunku for instance changed his name to Winston Man, so they would think he was white, and not black!

Apartheid was serious about destroying this vibrant era, and no exceptions would be made for jazz. Jazz was an expressive force seeking musical and social equality, and apartheid hated that. And thus even the sound of Jazz changed to accommodate the urgency that was required.

South African Jazz was the expressive scream calling out against the inequities and inadequacies, the unpretentious harmony of a peoples deepest desires: freedom and fairness.

In '68 he recorded the classic 'Yakhal Nkomo' (Bellowing Bull), "a scream for equality and freedom, a shout for recognition of the pain we were feeling," explains Winston.

THE STORM THAT TOOK WINSTON HOME

On a Thursday afternoon, we had a tremendous storm in Durban. This storm had been brewing all day. When I reached the Stable Arts theatre, there was a certain edge, described by Thabang's whimsical but oh so relevant comment, “The music industry will take you and break you like a matchstick.”

With the storm came a release. Pipes started bursting all of Durban due to release of pressure. This storm marked the day of the passing of Winston Mankunku. Mankunku was a true father of South African jazz music.

Whether with his own band, Winston could turn on the music with the ease of turning on a tap. And thus when Winston turned to spirit he turned off exploitation with the ease of turning off a tap.

FALSE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CREATOR AND EXPLOITER

The music, the beautiful music that comes from the muse, the compost of the collective consciousness, decomposing and recomposing into a vivid array of colours that are natures' true abundance: this is for what we live. When allowed to breath the music speaks for itself. Music: need not money to be recognized. Music: need not negotiation to be heard. Music: need only freedom. And then it is as it is: in the heart of its creator, directed to the hearts of the created, in an expression of the oneness of humanity.

At some point the record executive witnessed the miracle of this music in action and acted to represent the interests of those not present. When the record executive makes a recording, he captures a vibrational representation of the impulses omitted from the musical gathering, packages these and sells them (very often back to the musician and his her audience).

The record executive has created a false dependency. He has created a cyclical system. Sound recordings were created for the continual generation of wealth from music. This was not sustainable. The intentions of recording were driven by self interest and this is why the recording industry has collapsed.

A record company would assign themselves exploitation rights to the recorded music. The composers, producers, artists, engineers, studios were assigned abstract royalties which could never really amount to much. A driving reason why artists royalties have never amounted to a sustainable income for the artists (Michael Jackson included) is because they are not meant to. The music has been exploited to such an extent that it is window dressing for commercialisations favourite mechanism - planned 'obsolescence'. They make their money through selling products to their consumers that become useless in the shortest amount of time. (There is an island in the Atlantic called plastic island that will attest to that.)

MUSIC SENDS ITS INDUSTRY TO OUT OF SPACE

“If the master is not present in the house, all sorts of shady characters will take up residence there.” Sun Tzu

Apathy and the openness of an unresolved ego is the trappings that the music industry used. Thorough these avenues cycles of fluxuations of emotions are created with no release. This is what the Buddhists call samsara – the cycle of suffering.

Many many kind hearts have been tricked by the music industry and their ‘ebullient' middle men. Their trickery is mischievity of the mind and the intellect. The rules of conduct developed by the intellect are put into contract form to became a tool of suppression. Very detailed and difficult to comprehend contracts cast a veil of misunderstanding between the artists and the industry, thus creating a rift between the musicians and the money. There was never any intention to bridge this rift by any means, the intention it appears was to widen this rift and eventually steal the pure souls on the other side and take them all out to out of space to where the music industry has gone.

However this did not happen. The world was not destroyed and the world did not sink down a black hole.

THE REVOLUTION

Like through hearing tension we release it, through recognising conflict we overcome it. It is a time of musical revolution. The musical revolution promotes music over and above the industry.

The revolution was built on live recordings, whereby artists could cut out the malicious middle men (record executives, A&R…) and off-set the recording costs directly with their audience. This was the resurrection of the relationship between musician and audience. Free of all pressure and active only in the humility of humanity. And this is the original position of music.

And the musical revolution of self publishing was made manifest by the explosion of the internet. The divide and rule strategy of the global media strangle hold of the old system was replaced with a system that represented the ONENESS to where we are all headed. Thus music has been set free through the digital media and digital archiving and pirated file sharing. And music has become a sustainable cycle of knowledge flow between audience and artists.

With the advent of the internet in '94 – '00, the explosion of social media '05 – '10, a simple blog, profile or website has replaced the function of the record company in the public space.

Alas the marble tables have been overthrown so to speak. The ego industry, the promiscuity industry, the exploitation industry are all long gone and we rejoice. There is now a pleasant silence in the private palaces and a cultural revolution in the public spaces. Every aspect of the recording industry in the media is now waving in the wind like the one eyed giant it was. This great beast of burden can be turned to the good. Music is entirely free to please and spread an abundance of joy to all humankind across all mediums for all eternity.

Thank you to the soldiers of the light, all those freedom warriors and eternal mothers whose beauty and endurance, whose courage and love was the foundation for our greatest triumph ... It was the work of this generation of jazz that finally managed to chase the devil out of town.

How does the musician benefit?

The Recording Industry of South Africa had an awful reputation. They were conspiring to exploit the artists across all levels of this tangled web they weaved. Funnily it was piracy (selling 'unauthorised' copies of music) that fought a brief duel with conspiracy (exploitation of artists). Within ten short years it was over. The people prefer pirates to slave masters. Music did the talking. The music got shared, heard and enjoyed in the digital airwaves of unlimited choice and freedom.

uBuntu. This is a time of celebration. We are experiencing a cultural revolution. So as the music is shared, so the information of that music is shared and so the names and repertoires of musicians enter the hearts, minds and consciousness of an ever expanding collective, and so their careers become recognised, preserved and or sustained through love.

COMPOSITIONS : ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

There are some things that have been learnt :

The primary asset of the musician is his/her compositions. These compositions are given a ‘long life' through recording. And these recorded compositions create revenue through ‘electronic performance'. Radio play, soundtracks and re-release on compilation albums are examples of ‘electronic performance'. A secondary asset is copies of the recordings which can be sold, digitally via Mp's or pressed to CD or vinyl. These products can be created on demand. Composition is known as ‘intellectual property”. Compositions before the time of recording are regarded as folk music and the intellectual property that could be attributed to the composer is shared amongst the ‘folk'. This wealth is due to the composer. When an artist dies his/her music continues to generate wealth through his/her recordings. These monies can be tapped and even revived. The first step in tapping them is to create a living archive. A living archive must include as thorough a documentation as possible of all the recordings, publicity, photographs, video clips, awards and memories of the artist. Everything regarding his/her career.

DURBAN JAZZ FAMILY OF FRIENDS

It is clear that there is something in Durban that takes you beyond yourself, which is in fact toward yourself and even within yourself.

Durban is a healing destination. And this has been the case for as long as 'known' history. People visit Durban for healing and for breeding. It is the warm waters! And the people living here are adept at healing in whatever profession they occupy. Of course this is my experience and my perspective. I was born here and after living in Cape Town for ten years chasing the wind around the mountain I returned to Durban, to experience the summit of my emotional cul-de-sac and replace once and for all my complaining with a music instrument.

I am a trumpet player and I am part of the great jam in heaven as it is now on earth. This book, this body of research you may now know is as much for the reader as for myself.

STABLE ARTS THEATRE : temple of learning

The Stable Arts Theatre is a converted fire station that looks like a church. It is wedged between highways and railways, semi circled by a crescent moon of fever trees. It is in the epi-centre of Durban's City. Artists sit and practice in all locations around the theatre, but not on the dance floor. There is a 50's style ballroom dance floor overlooking the railway line.

Thabang is one of the legends who does sign painting At the Stable Arts Theatre. He plays the guitar. That day when we had the storm, I listened to him play. That was a trip into the eye of the storm. He is a poet and a storyteller too. Yesterday he told the story of an encounter on the taxi. The old lady and the granddaughter boarded a taxi to Addington Hospital. On passing Stanger Street the grand-daughter asked who all the young ladies, the angels of the night, who were standing on the street corner were? The grandmother said they were teachers. The taxi driver interrupted and said no you must tell the granddaughter the truth. The grandmother was upset with the taxi driver for interfering. The granddaughter asked whether these teachers had children? The grandmother said yes, where do you think all these taxi drivers come from? At which point the taxi driver pulled the car over onto the side of the road and kicked the grandmother and her granddaughter out the taxi. The grandmother reported that driver to the taxi association and the driver was suspended!

THREE GENERATIONS OF DURBAN TRUMPET PLAYING

At Stable Arts Theatre under the tutorage of Eric Duma, I began again blowing trumpet. It was the meditation and the submission to the high power of music I could no longer do without. Learning is made magic through the sacrifice of the master. Eric has a lovely clear and strong approach to music and playing trumpet.

Eric's trumpet teacher was Elias S'dumo Ngidi. Elias is from the penny whistle generation. Elias 'S'dumo' Ngidi has an extraordinary lived experience through his music. He toured with Winston Mankunku as a trumpeter in the band. I got so carried away in the pure joy of his reminiscing about the nationwide tour he did in Mankunku's band. These jazz musicians of Durban are like no other.

"We were exiled in our land, we were seen as terrorists. I was taken in by AWB (the biggest racists), however being a musician I played for them Saarie Mare and as a result I was treated as a hero. Music can tame a lion. If a lion comes here roaring and upset, and you play your horn, it will be tamed,” said Elias.

He said, “It is about you and your instrument, nothing else matters.”

MUSICAL DYNASTY'S

Ngidi is the father of one of a number of musical families or dynasties in Durban. His son Philani is an accomplished bass player. Mseleku is another great musical dynasty of KZN. Bheki Mseleku was born in March 1955 and learnt piano at the Nokwe home in Kwa Mashu. Albert Nokwe ran the YMCA which supported culture - and today Tu Nokwe is a performer. Tu Nokwe went into music at the motivation of Bheki Mseleku. Both his brothers' daughters, Andile and Wendy who have also passed, were well known singers with album releases.

AN EDUCATION FROM ABDULLAH IBRAHIM

When Abdullah Ibrahim turned seventy years of age I enjoyed travelling to his music school M7 in District Six and conducting an interview with him. BBC were present during the interview and would have recorded it. I did not recall it however can confirm that one of the M's in his philosophy of M7 stands for Mecca. The conversion of Adolfus Brand to Abdullah Ibrahim and his pilgrimage to Mecca was a major part of his life and spiritual journey. Abdullah Ibrahim was the esteemed name (AI = LOVE) that was awarded to him One thinks of Mohammed Ali (Casius Clay) and Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) whose conversions to Islam were a paramount expression of their unique faith and a necessary part of their global success.

I enjoyed meeting Abdullah Ibrahim so much. He said, “all creative people must read the Art of War,' and a host of other important quotes which I followed. It is that which makes him a musical father to many. He is unwavouring in his honour and truth. As a token of my own love I sent a copy of the article I wrote commemorating and celebrating his 70 th birthday to him for his approval. Was this a sign of self-doubt or childish arrogance? It was my lesson because Abdullah Ibrahim called up Expression Magazine and had them can the story altogether. I don't know what he said to them, but they were certainly not impressed. Anyway I needed a wake-up. I was lost fart and I always thank those with the courage to discipline me because I am of the new generation. I came from a broken home, meaning the strong family value of self-discipline I had to find elsewhere. Abdullah Ibrahim educated me. Thank you.

The classic book Art of War by Sun Tzu says,

“All warfare is based on deception.”

“The quality of decision is like a well-timed swoop of a falcon.”

“Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.”

“Let your rapidity be that of the wind. Let your compactness that of the forest.”

AN EDUCATION IN LIFE

As we begin our journey into music we develop the habit of practicing. Every day without fail. There is hard work that goes into developing the freedom of mind and absolutely faith to have fun with music. This hard work can be accomplished in a DAILY PRACTICE:

Studying under Bheki Luthuli at the UKUSA he drummed into the trumpet students the need to practice. ‘You don't have a life,' he said, ‘only practice. And when you are cooking, the trumpet must be right there for practice.”

WHAT YOU PUT IN = WHAT YOU GET OUT

“Resolve all your conflict in your place of practice. An example is the album ‘under the bridge' by sonny Rollins. Your practice space is a space where you can abandon yourself. All the demons are left behind in your practice space when you go to perform,” says Melani Scholtz.

GURU MASTER RELATIONSHIP
How the sound of Jazz is shared

INTERVIEW CARLO MOMBELLI 2006 "It is impossible to be self-conscious and totally involved in the music at the same time. Consciousness of self is a barrier between the player and the instrument. As I forget my own presence, I attain a state of oneness with the activity and become absorbed in a way that defies the passage of time." – from the book ´Being at the Piano` by Mildred Chase. 
“At 8 my mom takes me to see the ballet ‘Swanlake'. I fall in love with the music. My parents send me to piano lessons. At 14 I start singing in my dad's restaurant with the regular cover band. I remember singing the Michael Jackson song ‘Ben'. I had a high voice and still have one. I had to leave the restaurant immediately after I sang as the stripper Glenda Kemp used to do her act after me with a python. I studied classical music as a subject at Pretoria Boys High where I composed a piano piece I played for an exam. I started playing the bass at 16 in a band after hearing Jaco Pastorius with Weather Report. I experienced the same Baptism feel about music that I had when I was 8. Our band played the music of Weather Report, Billy Cobham and Chick Corea. We worked out these tunes from Bootleg tapes I made of the Johnny Fourie band that played in Hillbrow.” “I carried the guitarist George Vardis's guitar a few kilometres to rehearsals every weekend and every day in the holidays in exchange for information on the modal system (scales). When I left home in Standard Nine I worked in a music shop on the weekends. The owner was Andre Steenkamp and he introduced me to a lot of music and got me a gig with the Jazz pianist Ricky Anandale. I did not know anything about walking bass so he wrote out all my bass lines for me. “Around this time I discovered the music of Eberhard Weber, Ralph Towner, and E.C.M. Records that has had a major influence on my compositions. I tried to copy the sound. I started a band called ‘ Reflections' that I used to workshop and develop my composition abilities. I got called up to the army and landed up in the ‘entertainment unit' . I was always in trouble for playing original music at the Generals weddings etc. Most musicians did not want to play with me as they said I was a ‘pseudo intellectual' bassist. So, they put me in the office to work out everyone's leave. This gave me the time to do a year long weekend gig with the pianist Ricky Anandale where I learnt to walk the bass over jazz changes. When I finished in the army Johnny Fourie heard me at a competition and offered me a six month gig, 6 nights a week playing jazz. This was my major jazz school.

Now after that evening of the competition Johnny got a gig at Spats, the night-club of the Sandton Hotel, playing jazz six nights a week for six months. He put a band together and called me to play bass. I didn't feel I was ready to do a gig like that, as all I knew about jazz was reading the walking bass lines that Ricky had written for me. I turned down Johnny`s gig but he told me, "you only get one chance". After he said that I took on the gig and prayed. Now I had always wanted to go and study music in America but that was too expensive and I never had, and to this day, still haven't had, a bass lesson, so this gig was probably the most important job I ever did. When a guru in India takes on a student, the student is with him every day, learning. Not like the once a week music lessons given in the West. Johnny took me in the breaks each night and showed me my mistakes and how to improvise. Johnny had become my Guru for the next six months. That band had Stan Jones on piano and Duke Makasi on sax who also took advantage of this guru situation. Now Neill Ettridge was playing drums and when he decided to do another gig Johnny got hold of this youngster, Kevin Gibson to finish the last month. When Spats came to the end, I was ready to play my own music again, but this time at a much higher level, so the first choice for my group was Johnny. When the gig ended I went into a woodshed period practising 14 hours a day for about four months before I started my first professional original music group called ‘Abstractions' . As I was on my own I could not afford to study at an institution so I created my own environment. I learnt music on the stage. ” “In the early eighties, a beer company put on a nation-wide jazz talent search. I entered with a band I had at the time and even though I knew very little about jazz, my group was chosen for the top five finalists. Johnny had also entered with Sean (his son) and was also chosen. The evening of the competition (held at the Sandton Sun Hotel in Johannesburg) was a stepping stone for me. Even though some smooth jazz group won the prize, a recording contract (nothing has changed), Johnny heard me play my music. He came over to me and told me how much he had enjoyed what I was doing. When I started to play in `76, I used to go and listen to Johnny Fourie, Johnny Boshoff and Tony Moore jamming at a club in Hillbrow and I used to bootleg their shows, go home and work out all the stuff they were playing. So these guys were stars for me. “In the eighties there were many clubs in Joburg. The most important one was Jamesons. When you went down those stairs and entered that place you knew you were in an exciting place and you would hear interesting bands and the apartheid bullshit stayed outside. Another great club was Rumours in Yeoville where we would all hang out on Sundays to play the jam sessions. That place was packed and they had a real piano just like Jamesons as well as Kippies. There is not a single jazz club in Joburg that can boast a piano today, probably the most important instrument in the history of jazz music and the core centre of any jazz club, world-wide. I played with my band Abstractions on average three times a week to small audiences and did a solo bass spot at the ‘Black Sun' in Hillbrow at midnight every Friday where the Genuines where playing. “Abstractions was a fantastic group and we worked hard. We would every now and then do block rehearsals of five days in a row to work on the new material I kept on writing and everyone was there to make it happen. The band had Johnny and Jo Runde on guitars, and Neill Ettridge on drums. With Abstractions I experimented with sound and the band performed at a very intense level. Every art page spoke about the band and Shifty records recorded and released our first and only album. But the music went over the heads of most people, it was just too different and in 1987 I realised that if I wanted to make some progress I had to go overseas. “It is important to me that people can grasp and feel my music deep down.” “As history speaks, we know that jazz originated from the slaves that were brought to America from Africa, and classical music has its roots firm in Europe but that's long past so we can't say that just white people listen to classical music and black people listen to jazz and blues. It is my impression that Brazil is one of the few countries to have fused so many styles from all different cultures to make their own music on a level like no other. They took the music from the Angolan slaves, mixed it with the European classical music that the Portuguese and other Europeans brought, and mixed that with the music of the Indians and the Amazonas, then introduced the jazz harmony from America and you have the most incredible music. Composers like Egberto Gismonti for example. I had the privilege of working and recording with Egberto in Europe, the few days that I spent with Egberto were a major learning experience for me. He showed me the depth of music. When he put his hand down on the piano in the sound check, music came out. He never tested the piano. There was just music. When we recorded we would sit first and discuss what we were going to say with the music and we would all get into the same frame of mind and then play. Classical musicians master there instruments and are expected to perform at a high level of musicianship and professionalism but what lacks in classical circles is the swing and the freedom of expression jazz musicians have. So if a musician can perform at the technical level of a classical musician with the soul of the third world you have an interesting mix. That's what Brazilians have done.” “We did a jumble sale in our house just to raise enough money to get one way tickets to Europe. When I arrived I saw brilliant musicians waiting for me. After two weeks there was a big band auditioning bass players for ballroom gigs, lanie stuff. I was very fortunate to get the gig. They give you a book of 300 pieces. No rehearsals. They call a number at the gig and you play. It's six hours. I learnt a helluva lot.” “I got a job at the Registrars Conservator in teaching. The classical and jazz departments are great. There must be three hundred teachers there. The audition was very strange because you were invited. You walked into the room and you had loads of teachers to judge you and you had a student. First you had to have papers. I don't have a single paper. I am a self-taught bassist. I went from piano to bass. The guy auditioning before me was from Passport. The guy after me could play Giant Steps at double time. Hot guys! I played a solo bass piece and then I taught. I talked about silence and how to bring your voice out in your sound. We talked about art for half an hour. They asked me to play again. I played an emotional ballad. They said the performance was so passionate and the teaching was so intense. And I wasn't trying to impress anyone. And then they had to write a letter to the municipality explaining why they employed this guy with no papers. “I started meeting up with other jazz musicians. I made an album in the Bauer studio. This was my dream. This place is like history. And the sound is incredible. When you go into mix you don't touch the board because it is perfect how the engineers set up. I was touring with Charlie Mariano. We did an album together. Six hours complete, Happy Sad (1992 ITM Pacific). “I certainly didn't find it easier though when I lived in Europe. There are a lot more great musicians and sound engineers and more festivals and more discerning audiences. The overall standard is higher. Jazz musicians over there are also struggling to make ends meet, find gigs and most of the time pay for their own recordings. That's why most of the jazz albums are done in one or two days. Bats in the Belfry (1997 Baobab) was a live recording, therefore done in three hours. That's why Marcus's record, Voice, Bheki Mseleku, Abdullah Ibrahims and Zim Ngqawana's records breath, because they are played LIVE.” “ Bats in the Belfry was from a concert for overseas radio. It was recorded onto DAT. It wasn't meant for release. The name of the band was Prisoners of Strange. It wasn't a commercial project. As I had no records out in South Africa I started Baobab art records to capture the art. The cover depicts an oil painting I bought in Prague. The artist painted this girl walking and above her head flies a bat. Well I spent a lot of time looking at this beautiful work and I have the feeling that she is mentally retarded. I use the painting as a cover to the CD because most of the music on the album Bats in the Belfry has been inspired by the painting. People may think this girl is weird and has a bat in the belfry, yet her world can be beautiful, a place we cannot understand. I have seen this in my music that what is normal, natural and beautiful to me, is usually strange to many others because they are maybe scared to come into that world.” “I went to see the film `Chocolate` and wept afterwards because I saw the comparison. The chocolate lady created all these beautiful chocolates but everyone in the village treated her as strange and only those that were brave enough to go into her world and taste one of her chocolates realised how beautiful and delicious they really were and how normal she really was. The rest made her a Prisoner of Strange. We make all these wonderful chocolates but all the people want, and all that the industry want to sell, are crunchies and yogi bars.” “I gave up the teaching post at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich to come home with my family, so that my two little daughters could grow up in this fantastic country. I was tired of greeting people who don't greet you back. I never felt European. My wife and I love South Africa and we never ever intended to stay away so long. The sunshine, the colour of the sand, the wildlife, the thorn trees, the music and the different cultures all in one country, this truly is a fantastic place.” “I've noticed that everyone here is considered a genius. If that's the case Mozart, Beethovan, Jaco, Miles, Zawinel, they must be Gods. Musicians that start new styles for me can be considered as genius. Musicians who are improvisers of the highest art form can be considered genius. ” “Let's get back to the music scene. One thing I have noticed here is the way Jazz musicians turn to licks and gimmicks once they become famous. These same musicians played so beautiful then suddenly fame, and all that beautiful music flew out the window. Now I must say that when I arrived here two years ago people were raving about Herbie Tsoali. So I went to listen to him a few times and he sounded like a beginner but I could hear he played with honesty and passion. He is for me the musician that has grown the most in the time that I have been back. He truly has become a great bassist. Even though he has become well known he still plays honestly with passion, taste and a magnificent tone. My other favourite is moving to Amsterdam, Marcus Wyatt. The problem with the scene here is that there are only a handful of great musicians and the rest are all trying to convince you how great they are. So when we lose someone like Marcus there is no-one to really replace him in Johannesburg. There is Feya Faku whose trumpet playing I love, but he lives in Durban. So I would say another problem we have here is the lack of horn players that could play any chart you put in front of them, play it correctly, play it in tune, play it with soul and feeling then blow you off the stage when they improvise. Marcus has that. He now has the big task ahead of finding his voice but I am sure he will. That's what I respect with Hugh Masakela is that he has his sound. Even though I don't like the music he is now composing I still like to hear him play that Masakela style horn. Abdullah Ibrahim plays Abdullah.” “On another note let me Quote from Nachmanovitches book, ´Free Play`. "One of the most insidious kinds of pressure to which an artist can succumb is the pressure to be accessible. Well-meaning advisors may tell you that X is accessible, marketable, popular and so on, and there may be artists who naturally do X out of their own being and become popular and wealthy. But if you alter your work to be more X-ish, people will spot it as inauthentic; it will not be heartfelt X because it does not originate in your own being. By all means develop and revise your work to communicate more and more clearly; but if you alter one word in order to please some imagined market "out there", the integrity and originality of everything you do is at risk. Whereas if you create your own material in your own way, developing artwork that is more and more authentically yours, people will spot it as genuine. In resisting temptation to accessibility, you are not excluding the public; on the contrary, you are creating a genuine space and inviting people in. Ideally, artist and audience are close, inter-responsive, accessible to each other's minds and heart. But in a world of mass economics and mass communication, producers and middlemen of all kinds insist that our work conform to a lowest common denominator. Natural communication between artist and audience is stimulated by the banalities of market research and advertising. This is a particularly insidious process because it arises not from anyone's bad intentions but from the fundamental nature of large systems and institutions. The danger to the artist is that under pressure of these institutions he might internalise those demands and replace his immaculate, natural voice with an artificially synthesized one. On the other hand, if we self-consciously try to be original, we can wander in the opposite direction, going for a distinctive voice or look that sets you apart from everybody else. Young artists easily fall into the trap of confusing originality with newness. Originality does not mean being unlike the past or unlike the present; it means being the origin, acting out of your own "What unites classics and jazz is the search for new things. When you are searching you make statements like John Cage did with silence for 3 minutes fourty-four in 1945. He arrived on stage opened up the piano to premiere his new work and sat there for exactly 3:44. He closed the piano and walked off the stage and that was a piece of music. He can't do that again. What he was trying is what happens within silence is actually music. He wasn't doing that to try and be different. He was a deep thinker. When you try to be different it becomes a gimmick. When you search you become experimental.”   When Johnny Fourie died : Carlo Mombelli wrote : “Johnny Fourie, my Guru and friend left this planet yesterday afternoon.  
Johnny was never interested in fame. He was dedicated to playing pure music. He has gone virtually unnoticed by this industry. Johnny lived music. He was a musician on the stage, wherever he was, at the dinner table, in his sleep, everywhere. He played uncompromised music, and maybe that's why only a select few know who he is? “ Born in a little dorp in the karoo in 1937 he played his first professional gig at the age of 15 in a boere-orkes. Being self taught he went on to do a three-year stint in the house band of Europe's most famous jazz club, 'The Ronnie Scotts', in London. There he played with all the international greats. He worked with the London Symphony Orchestra, worked in New York with Billy Cobham and Hubert Laws, and on a recommendation by his friend John McLaughlin he was one of two guitarists to audition for Chick Coreas' new band 'Return to Forever'. And yet in South Africa he is virtually unknown. He has battled to get a chance to play on festivals and was not commercial enough for the record companies. There is recorded work of his thanks to Shifty records that recorded Abstractions in '87 and the label Instinct Africaine that released Johnny's trio recording in 2000. This album was disqualified from the SAMA's, because there wasn't enough original music on it! But, part of being a jazz musician is the art form of interpreting standards in your own personal way. If you want to know a little about Johnny, get hold of that recording. Melt 2000 have just released a recording that Sean, Johnny's son, made of Johnny playing solo guitar. It's beautiful. I hope that The SAMA committee come to their senses and don't disqualify this release as well. This has been the story of Johnny's life in South Africa. Yet he gave us so much music. “ He was a generous spirit and extremely honest. If you played bad that's what he would tell you, and if you played great he let you know. Johnny loved the way I played and he loved my compositions. He booked me, for me. (Often I play in a group and they want me to play like someone else). Johnny taught me to play with musicians who do what they do. I have learnt from Johnny that as a bandleader, one must be an inspiration and challenge your musicians to push the boundaries but recognise and appreciate the art and beauty each musician has to offer. He taught me that you get bandleaders and you get bandrulers. He was an artist and a bandleader.   “ When will this music industry wake up? How could they have let Johnny Fourie slip by? He should have been playing at all the festivals here. Every time we have a great jazz hour on radio it gets taken off the air and replaced by two hours of sissy jazz. Metro, Khaya and SAFM, what happened? The one good DJ told me once they replaced her show because she played that strange funny jazz music.     “ My deepest condolences to Val, Johnny's wife, and to Sean, his son who both loved him and supported every note he played. Also my condolences to the rest of his family and everyone that will miss him.   JOHNNY I LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU GAVE ME. I WILL CHERISH IT FOR LIFE AND YOU WILL ALWAYS BE IN MY HEART AND MY MUSIC...  “

FURTHER INTERVIEW WITH CARLO MOMBELLI   “Rules don't make works of art. Works of art make rules.” Debussy

“If the music was composed or improvised from that inner child that we search for, pure and innocent, listening to the voice of your muse, then we are on the right track of beauty. Art must uplift you, transport you, challenge you, touch your inner being, bring some form of hope and faith and a sense that it is some sort of a miracle. An artist tells his side of the story in truth, sad or good. He tells his story of the everyday life through his eyes. Picasso's ´Guernica` is such an example of a great work.” “The main way of composition is through improvisation. It is important to jam a bit after practicing. Improvisation produces composition. Improvisation means spontaneous in the moment: right then and there.” “ Conversation is improvisation. The composer brings a topic and gives a platform for a debate. And I invite high quality and interesting speakers to debate the topic with their voice. All the music that I play is enjoyed by all the musicians.” “ Music comes from intuition. We've got our subconscious which is our library for information. When fighting in the martial arts they repeat the movements. They are filling up the subconscious with movements. They always learn slowly because accuracy breeds speed. You have to put the movements in 100% correct otherwise you start memorizing bad habits. What brings all the moves out of the subconscious is the muse. And that is how people play music.” “ Technique is a means of how we can take what is inside and share it with a person outside. The better our technique the better we will be able to share it. Knowledge breeds quality. You got to have passion in anything you do. Passion drives you. You got to have talent. But the main thing is discipline. Discipline and Passion go together. I practice every day without fail. I force myself to improve. There is so much to learn. I want to be an incredible musician. I am not thinking about the future. I am striving for perfection. But perfection does not exist. That is the future.”

THANK YOU FOR THIS PIONEERING PERSPECTIVE :   In London there is Claude Deppe – a fantastic Cape Town born trumpeter.   INTERVIEW CLAUDE DEPPE IN LONDON

“I came to Europe in 74, my parents brought me over direct from Cape Town. I grew up in Cape Town, Bridgetown, Gugulethu and very much the Cape Flats. My Grandfather had a brass band and a choir so that is where the music side of me comes from. I remember music from the time I could crawl. Music was always there. I came over went to music collage and the first three months I thought it was full of shit, it was all orchestral they were all straight playing. I was saying to all these musicians we got to do extra work. There is not a lot of orchestras to hold us all, but they were all no, no, no, that's what you hear from them. So after three months I left. My mother said, “You think you are smarter than the teachers you gonna end up working in a bottle factory.” I took a job working for the London Electricity Board I did that for about two years but I knew I was going to do music. I was always walking with my trumpet. I kept going from there. I left that job after 2 and a half years, I actually asked them to fire me. I went to the district manager and said listen if I was working for me I'd fire me, you know. I am late, sometimes you don't know if I am coming in, and then they said but you are good at the job. But I said don't you need someone here 9 to 5, 5 days? So they fired me. And I just kept going from there. I always walked with my trumpet. I just kept going.” “Jazz was always there. S.A music is Jazz based. People say Jazz is American. NO. There were orchestras in the 50's as there were in the states and records weren't that easily available. The music was always there, you sing at home, you sing a melody, you sing your melody in count; that is jazz and improvising. I have a strong harmonic sense . That's one thing in SA we have, is a strong harmonic sense. We are not the greatest drummers, but harmonically you can't touch SA. “Whenever you leave your home you're in exile, whether it is political or economic. Once I was here I didn't initially start off. I played in youth bands and that's where I got my reading and discipline from. I came to meet Louis Maholo and in fact my second gig was with Louis Maholo. My first was with Dave Halsworth and Harry Miller whose wife Hazel Miller incidentally, is standing outside. She is just waiting for tickets. “I was just a young kid at collage and one of the teachers was a trumpet player, Dave Halsworth, an English guy working here. He put this band together for us at collage. It wasn't even music. There was no music. It was on all levels. It blew my mind. I said that's what I want to do, that exactly, and I went from there. I'd been playing trumpet for about a year and a half, two years and then Louis Maholo booked me for a gig at Bracen Jazz festival that summer and it just blew my mind. I had been playing two years and from there a lot of work came. I was doing big bands, playing with various people, I did a lot of benefit gigs for the movement during the struggle. “My music is completely South African. You can hear it from the first note. You will hear the introduction and you know it. It's meant to be happy music. This band has crossed the section where people think of African music as just dance music. This is jazz. I am not a believer of what Duke Ellington said: ‘Jazz is African music'. That's where it basically comes from. It's that harmonic structure. It's that freedom, just to take a single melody and expand on it, to improvise. We have been doing that since time immemorial. All different forms of African music have that, and that is what Jazz music is based on. It's that that gives jazz command of European instruments. The accuracy of the European instruments was such that we did not have in Africa. We have no fixed pitched instruments. Once you get into a fixed pitched, this is what it sounds like. Tomorrow it doesn't change slightly. “People are beginning to recognize that actually Africa is the seed of life. You know life started in Africa. History is only one persons' story, and you got to start correcting all of that. If you look at American school books and Geography books, Africa is marked smaller than America! America is a country, Africa is a continent. It's three times the size, but in their Geography books it's the other way round. How are the kids going to get a perspective of the world, when you think we are this big and everybody is that small? “I am upfront and I try to always be correct and honest. I don't tolerate shit, I have always tried to be honest and true to my profession and my lifestyle as a complete human being not just as a musician, as a complete human being. Being honest, you will find that you meet various people. On the planet there are various species and even within one species there are various characters. We are all individuals, so there are very different people. If you treat yourself as one separate entity you feel that if anything that comes against you can bounce off, but if you think you are fragile… A cracked glass splits, a solid glass can hold it . “I have been on a British council tour with Andy Shepard about 3 or 4 years ago. Before that was the first British Council tour with Louis Moholo, Viva le black, my first time back after 17 years. When you go home it's like you got to go here and here. You get bogged down and you never get to see anyone. Whereas when I am working, I can only spend so long. So you get all those people together, I spend one day with you and one day with you guys…. “In Africa generally people are open, people are free. It's not cold. In Europe, people walk with hunch backs. It's cold, people don't look you in the eye very often. People are very narrow in the protection of themselves, they create their own bubble by cutting you off. You can create the stronger bubble by opening up. If you find the tube breaks down then all of a sudden you get this deadly silence. People start talking and that's what you want… In Nigeria I had to sit on this flight with my trumpet under my feet so my diaphragm was pushed against my belly. After an hour I was like this ahh ahh, I couldn't breathe properly for an hour then I go into to a car and I was like this get me out I want to sit in the front. London is tight, it's a city, it's like New York. But people like New York. New York has got more freaks, that's all. You want to see New York, go to South London you see the monks no problem…”

INTERVIEW MARCUS WYATT South African trumpet player

“When I was 11 or 12 and I was given a cornet to play. I wanted to be a drummer but there were no drums available. I remember struggling for a couple of years to get a grip on the instrument. The hardest thing for anyone starting the trumpet is to get a nice sound / tone on the middle G or C. I am lucky in that I have been playing for a long time so the technique has come through a lot of practicing and playing . I was playing in school bands and we were reading for years. I am lucky to have had a classical background and brass band which is that English tradition, which for a brass player is the best training ground because you really have to get your technique together, because in a brass band all those fiddly bits that the strings play will have to be played by trumpet. It is a serious workout technique wise. I always love to play. I met a lot of great players in the navy band and I started to feel the instrument, hear the possibilities and it started to resonate as a sound. The sound is very human like and that is why I find it a very frustrating instrument, because for me it must have a warm tone, like voice.” “I had great English teachers: Mr Jones from school and a large American guy who really understood the instrument. Once I finished school I joined the navy band and studied at UCT. Since then I have never had trumpet teachers, it has been more about concepts and finding ways and facilities on the instrument to express more. The instrument constantly presents me with technical issues, but what I am more concerned about is the sound and playing in such a way that I am moved and people are moved and not necessarily worried about the instrument itself. It is easy to get caught up and absorbed in worrying about the instrument, the mouthpiece … you just need to make what you have work and concentrate on music. This was a music experience I had which took music from the realms of a hobby to a spiritual thing. A few years ago I had my first musical experience where I became unaware of where I was and it was really just the music that was engulfing me. I remember opening my eyes and realizing that I was in the Green Dolphin. That was when music first touched me in that sense. Since then I have been pursuing that. It has been about the music, but the music goes hand in hand with the instrument . You don't forsake one to chase the other, they go together.” “ Trumpet is a hellova instrument. You have to play every day. You have to do your long notes. Technique wise I still play from the Arban, the French Bible of trumpet. And things I can try and do every day to keep my lips in shape. I could be doing more.” “I have often composed from the bottom up as opposed from the top down. I have a lot of basslines and grooves and put meat around the skeleton like chordal structures and then put a melody on top of it. It is only lately that I have written new stuff the other way round from melody to chords and bass.” “When I studied at UCT I started practicing a lot and I met Dr Kebberly and he opened me up in a different way to talking more about the sound and making music as opposed to just playing the notes. I played this concerto, the Oratinian concerto which is a Russian concerto at City /Hall with the orchestra. Standing there with a full orchestra behind you is a strong sound. I listened to Piles of Miles Davis because of his sound and his approach to melody. And Clifford Brown as Clifford Brown for me was the consummate hardbop bebop lyrical player with a beautiful sound. He plays the most intricate rhythmic and harmonic patterns very effortlessly. I later found out my grandfather was a musician and his brother a drummer. So there was something in the family. “We don't have a lot of trumpet players in South Africa . I worked with the late Dennis Mpale. I met him in Joburg. Standing next to that guy on stage, he had the spirit of Miles in him, the same kind of messed up tone, but it was so beautiful with a lovely centre. I am not really a trumpet player that listens to a lot of trumpet players. I listen to saxophone and piano players. Trumpet is a tricky one. I don't necessarily like the sound of the trumpet in a certain register as it can be quite a hard sound. The frequencies can be hard on the ears sometimes . I love a midrange sound. Miles plays in that midrange it is a warm sound and resonates. For me: the bigger the tone, the rounder the tone, the better. It is good to aspire to more technique as then you can express yourself more. ” “Frustration never goes away as far as I can tell. It is always important to remember that there is a reason why you are doing what you are doing. There is a goal. And that is to play music. I failed my scales in all my exams. It was only when somebody actually explained to me why we learn scales that they became easy to me. Before that it was like an exercise and I didn't understand why I needed to learn it. Once you start being able to put into practice what you practice and realize that the whole point of it is that you can play and make music, then you do. Everything you play should be music. I remember watching a documentary about Wynton Marselis, ‘To catch a snake.' He was saying to this kid in a workshop, `You don't ever throw any notes away. You don't just play something because that is what you have been told to do. You must make music, even if you are playing a scale. Try and make it sound beautiful. Any exercise you are doing.' That is a big secret. Once you can find that then the whole thing will be much more worthwhile, focusing on music and not the trumpet. The trumpet is a means to an end. If I wasn't playing trumpet I would be playing something else. “I use Taylor trumpet and flugel. When I first tried it, it was love at first sight. Then I went through a difficult period with it because the metal is twice as thick as a normal one. It takes longer to warm up the metal and you got to put more air into it. You get a very nice round centred tone.” “I am always going to be playing music. I always want to be pushing trying to find new ways, new sounds and get to a place where I lessen my hardships of the instrument. But that is up to the individual to put in the work. “  PART TWO SPIRITS OF THEMBISA “Molelekwa's genes and natural spirits have set him free from the earth and world beyond.” Vukile Pokwana

Moses Molelekwa was one of South Africa's most innovative and progressive jazz musicians, a visionary who's revitalising the genre, mixing in the old with the new, respecting the traditional sounds, yet taking risks and pushing jazz into a contemporary and refreshing space. As with any great and passionate musician, he composes furiously and prolifically, dynamic and reflexive in an ever changing society, developing his sound into something that is retrospective and progressive, eclectic and representative, rhythmical and harmonic, sensitive and tolerant - a step in the direction of a universal sound.  Melt2000 released two albums to date. Finding Oneself came first and Genes and Spirits next. Even the post-humus collection (named Darkness Pass) of solo piano is deeply suggestive. Moses Molelekwa was a shining light that burnt a whole completely through the mass of self-interest that is the music industry. And artists were following this example, breaking through, creating music that was real and true. In the year 2000 (more so than ever before) the South African music industry was experiencing a golden period of expansion that was making it globally recognised. One would think that this was fantastic as a collective of kindness was rising in the wake of this pure expression. Moses was collaborating, bringing musicians together, achieving the dream of real music, pure music, true music, being the role model to all to realise their love through. It was his passion for the inclusivity of sound and commitment to expanding his music, combined with his instinctive desire for discovering the voice of harmony, that fine-tuned his ear to the little details, the beauty of jazz and its great embrace. Moses called himself a child of the LOST GENERATION .   INTERVIEW MOSES MOLELEKWA

"I love all music, and all the similarities. I think there's just something special about music, and you got to appreciate that." Regarding meeting and performing with Herbie Hancock April 2000 Cape Town "It was like a new beginning. I grew up listening to and playing Herbie Hancok's music - he is one of my greatest inspirations. When we hooked up, we didn't swap chords or talk music, we ended up meditating for an hour. It was just an amazing beautiful connection." A collaborative musician “I'm naturally like that. I listen to everything. That is sort of manifested in the way I play as well, all those different styles. It's exciting to see a jazz festival with so much variety, which shows that jazz is so huge. One's role in this is to confirm South African jazz to this market.” “There is a certain culture that already exists. The South African market is still taking baby steps compared to the States who are way ahead of us in terms of the structuring of the music business. Watching them represent their musical heritage inspires us as well to want to do more. We represent South African music and the now generation of music . We have all these different influences from the South African music scene and we bring out each and every one of them.” “Everywhere in the world there are those musicians who will express at a certain level, especially when you are doing something original. The music you play is also a medium in which you can express yourself best, like a language that is developed and that is growing and changing. So each artist when they start composing their own music and they play it; when the way they feel it is real to them, then they can touch other people and perform it with a real spirit.” “In South Africa now it is an exciting time and also a testing time where we are reconfirming the root we have chosen. The richness comes from within. Opening your ears to other people's music is important. And that's why it is always changing. We (South Africans) are new and bringing in other musical elements, styles and feelings into the feelings of the world, but it happens everywhere with all musicians. Music is the most powerful force in providing the thing that will unite the world. It is a connecting force that can come from every country. “African unity is important because there has just been too much blood and death in Africa. We can have a positive outlook because there is so much culture and so much music that needs to come out from there. There is a lot that needs to be done. African unity means African growth. It means world peace. I would like to see Africa as the United States of Africa, as one thing because we are one thing. “Only when we come out of this time of devastation, frustration and separation can we start growing. It is part of what I am about. I love African music and I love the rhythms that come out of that, I can hear similarities and how connected they are. It is important to have it unified.” “This comes through naturally, the experiences I have had, the feelings that I feel, the places I have been, they just manifest themselves. There is a certain feeling as well, a certain time when you play a chord or the movements that you use which is South African. The emotions that I put in are emotions that I know are there, but I don't know are there. It is not for me to look at them or judge them, it is just for me to express them. “I am philosophical about music. It is a mystery because sometimes when the sound is great and the spirit is great you can have some magical moments, something just happens on stage that you are so connected and you are complimenting each other in such a special way that there is a movement that gives you Goosebumps. It can go a long way. It can go to a very high level, expressing emotions and sometimes being overpowered by something that wants to say something through you. “I have been listening to a lot of music. There is a lot of great music in the world which is not being heard as often as it should be, but in bringing all those elements together, I will be able to do that. Now it is a period of reflections and I like what I see so far, but I can see where it can go as well. I need time to put it together and take it into the world. “As far as my musical career is concerned, at the moment I see a lot of possibilities. I think that for the next album it is going to be big. I can feel it because now I am aware of the importance of being global. I have always had those influences and that kind of perception but now I have experienced it and seen how it happens and how it can affect. I see possibilities of doing concerts with orchestras, I would like to develop my band. It can almost be like a school, but also a band which allows young people to come and grow in it and be free to leave when they need to move on; like a constantly developing ensemble. But at the end of the day, my next album will be all these influences put together, to present a new style, a new approach to music which is my personal approach.” One of his songs is entitled Spirits of Thembisa, Moses's life was shortlived and this lead to me to speak to his saxophonist.   INTERVIEW MOSES KHUMALO

“I met Moss at a Jam Session at Kippies. We played Mannenberg. We met again at a Club in Dobsonville. We played his song and that is when we started hooking up. He phoned me the very same week for the same club gig but with a full band. I knew Moss from there until his sudden death . “I am seeing development in our music. It has developed from mbaqanga and marabi to a certain style which can accommodate youth and the elderly. I must say it is getting to a point where people could appreciate jazz. When I was growing up they would say jazz is for old people. I didn't quite believe in that. I told myself I can relate with jazz. And from there the response is coming. If you check jazz festivals they get quite full and that is inspiring to see. People are starting to realise what is happening in our music, which is wonderful. “In Mbaqanga it used to be 1,4,5 . You get other elements in it. If you listen to Mannenberg and you listen to Shona, a lot of songs from those days in the sixties, they sound like the same vibe, but different. Today we have so many alternatives. You can't stick on the 1,4,5 because most of the artists have got the chance to go and study music. They have used those elements in music. So it sounds South African. That is most important. I try and check the history of our people as well. We must know where Hugh Masakela comes from and what he is about and Allan Kwela, Jonas Gwangwa, Sibongile Khumalo, Miriam Makeba ... It has totally changed. Like Ntjilo Ntjilo , it is a wonderful standard. And there are so many people like Bheki Mseleku, and Themba Mkhize who mix in Western sounds. It has developed from what it was to something we can be really proud of . I see people trying to express themselves. Trying to explain to the next person what they feel through their music. The title of the song tells the people what it was written about, what it was written for. “There is a song I play, ‘Hip for the Blue Ones' which I dedicated to Moses Molelekwa, I felt it was a song where I could at least be in touch. I don't play jazz in a political aspect, I play in a musical aspect for people to appreciate and enjoy their music. “For example if they were to book a kwaito group and book a jazz group, a kwaito group will always be paid more than a jazz group. This is what we sometimes discuss. To be honest, jazz is food for life. It sells for so many years and kwaito music exists for a month or two and we must wait for another hit. Whereby Jazz is played for the rest of our lives because you can listen to stuff that was composed a hundred years ago and it still has a meaning to us. Basically that is something that must change. Not that we must get a lot of money, people should start respecting and realising the importance of the music by giving the artist respect and not taking advantage like, “This is a jazz artist, our pay whatever because obviously they don't get enough proper jobs. This is because we tend to not speak for ourselves particularly when the promoters try and rip us off. The other thing we were talking about is that we were not together to fight those things. We don't have proper unions , we don't have proper places to talk and listen. We need to better the old industry by promoters coming together so artists can understand what the promoters need and the promoters can understand what the artists need, even the technical side of it. The people who work with sound should understand what the artist wants. We need to really have workshops, for an industry where not only musicians go there, but each and every promoter and musician in the country and the road managers too. We would have to find a way forward in bettering the industry. We can only do this by coming together and bettering the whole industry. Really. “I don't want to lie. Moses believed in any kind of music. He could play reggae, he could play techno and there is drum and base on his Spirits of Thembisa . All his songs were different, they didn't sound the same. Even kwaito, there was a song he called Django, Django was like a groove. He always believed in diversity. He always believed in music. He always told me that. He gave me that. When you play music you don't strictly have to play that music. You should be versatile and flexible in whatever. For me, Moses' death even today, I am still questioning about it because of the person he really was. He was a very spirited person. He had a free spirit. I could see Moss sitting with a beggar you know, giving them food, and all that. He was a very kind and a gentle person, and quiet too. We might not know. It is not for me to say because I wasn't even there. I don't know what really happened if it was that or that. For me, I am really crying for his soul, that beautiful soul. I can't judge what happened. I can only learn from some of the things. “It's fascinating in this industry because promoters can really sadden your heart. There is something called ‘bad spirit'. It comes from when you do something nice and people make you feel as though you are not doing something nice. I have been in those situations where I used to live a stressful time where my heart is just not feeling cool. I used to feel sad because of what is happening in an industry because of critics as well, people who don't appreciate what the next person is doing. If a person succeeds here in South Africa, particularly in our communities, people don't get happy when you succeed. They start having all these negative attitudes against you, they start calling you names and all that and all that. It saddens one when it is like that because they seem to judge you as a kind of a person which you are not. “The media should at least consider a person while they are still alive. An artist can say what is happening and all that because it is hard to put yourself in another person's heart. We as musicians and media should have a certain way of working, with each other, by understanding exactly what is happening between the two sides. I must know how to respect a journalist. I must know how to talk to a journalist, I must know how to approach talking to a journalist. So many people tend to only focus on the bad side of it and not the good side of it.

AWARENESS TO ARCHONS : suicide no longer necessary

Edited From the Presentation from Laura Eisenhower : Included titbits of evidence from James Gilliland and Alfred Webre : Presentations recorded and transcribed from UFO Consciousness and Science Conference :

From Laura Eisenhower

Our imbalances in humanity is what we are reflecting what we are seeing, what we are dealing with. Here is a Caitlyn Matthews quote :

“More and more people within spiritual traditions are awakening to the realisation of the disclosure of the chakras , divine wisdom and the empowering matrix …. She comes, she is here.”

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“We talk about how science and spirituality battle between the big bang and the light. It's all of it, why not? In the perspective that I was really touched with - the Sophia energies ; something of an expansion happened in the GODHEAD called Pleroma and that expansion went beyond the boundaries of the GODHEAD, which is a force that dreams . As it was expanding, getting to know itself as a process of creator understanding who it is, that energy went beyond the boundary which created this explosion, what we know as the big bang. This leak was tempered by the divine being Sophia. Sophia also means wisdom and it is the divine feminine energy within all . It has got many names, like Gaia.

“In the expansion, that dream which leaked created a disruption: a primordial sea of chaos. What happened was many forms were birthed and duality was formed . Once someone is identifying the self, an ego is created and from there one decides how they are going to use that energy. Is it going to be aligned with higher self, is it going to be aligned with the source, or is it going to be out for itself and its own needs and desires?

“These were thought forms that the consciousness of the GODHEAD felt when it was leaking out of its original place. It panicked in a sense. It created all these different forms. The gnostics say that this was a mistake. I don't agree. I think this is an incredible opportunity and an initiation into understanding how we are becoming aligned, just like the CREATOR ENERGY. We just have a lot of work to understand what that entails and what our responsibility is as co-creators of the world we live in.

Aeon: Greek, god, divinity, process, emanation, time cycle.

“Aeons is a gnostic term for a cosmically pervasive process that is aware and animated. The unity consciousness in an aeon is a universal awareness. It is a unified field, it is unconditional love. This is what Sophia energy is. Aeons manifest material worlds by dreaming rather than by the act of creation that is attributed to the biblical father. Aeons connect to Kundalini the higher octave of serpentine energy. Higher-self connects to Aeons and source.

“Aeons are capable of gesture response and speech. The standard symbol for this energy is serpent. The Aeons are serpents and not reptilian.” John Dam Lash

“It seems our primordial parents, our true creator is obviously GOD GODDESS Brahma, Sophia, and everyone in the aeon aeon–self region. And then it breaks down and breaks down … What we are dealing with is: copies in different forms that do have influence. We can trace our influence back to who our true parents are. It is way before the aliens! Everything is a child of source energy. The spark of the true creator is within us all.”

AN EXPLANATION OF ARCHONS

This lesson is about learning where our attention needs to be.

“Anything that is outside of THE SOURCE is based on disconnection; so it breeds inorganic entities that are not based on truth and that are based on illusion, based on deception and based on imitators. Archons are an imitative force. Archons are inert. Their forms are arrested in a premature stage of development.

“That the archon is the only god of the cosmos needless to say is a defining moment in gnostic ontology if not human evolution as well. The gnostics called it a veil over the planet. It refuses to acknowledge that there is anything higher than that. So, it only knows that controlling feminine is the way to be. There are two types of archons in concept. DEMIURGE is the archonic god, the one from the Old Testament : meaning lies. Archonic systems are very much about service to self . The archonic system that functions on a lower consciousness is the ruler of the lower chakras .

“There is the demonic, draconic or reptilian type of archon, cosmic parasites that will feed on any lower consciousness. They love to keep us entrapped, enslaved through all sorts of goodies telling us we are having fun and we are desensitized. We don't realise we are feeding these beings. And it can be anything from people who want a lot of wealth, a lot of power to people who can't stand how the world is and seek addictions and escapism. We all have to be careful, because there are two extremes. The archons are invested with a depressive device. One can just lose it, because it is such a challenge at times, or one can buy into it and say that it is all about power and about money and lose themselves: so one is susceptible, at both ends. The Archons provide a war between good and evil.

“The Archons are in this world in a duel dream, kind of like a nightmare. If we recognise it as such we can realise how energy shifts. That is the divine will, the divine plan. Unity consciousness and connection to the source is the rescue mission. The minute we embody unity consciousness, transformational energies activate the shift. If we look in the wrong direction we might find that there is a demon. Demonic energy may be something that wants to enslave you. Lower-self connects to archons in the physical plain and lower bases. It is not meant to imprison us, judge us, punish us or trap us, or make us miserable , it is there to remind us where our focus should be.

“We keep it alive as long as we are in a vibration that they thrive on. We attract parasites when we are out of balance, cosmic parasites feed on that but are only alive as long as we have lower consciousness for them to feed on. As soon as we tackle that, just as a cancer gets healed, and as we eject poison and disease, because we are really connected to our immune system and our higher selves that have all those abilities and gifts, we will terminate that system.

From the presentation by Alfred Webre

“Archons are a inter dimensional inter psychic virus . We have cases whereby people who were trying to get addicts of drugs would be attacked by an archonic queen, who controls a number of addicts who they use for access to their souls by keeping them on drugs.”

From the presentation by James Gilliland :

“Can you see the being above the woman? He is showing a photograph with the blurred image of a ‘being above the woman.'

“ This is an astral being. This particular guy died of a drug overdose at the old hotel. The women standing there was very sensitive. She was over subjected and it hooked into her field. She came to us, she was very sick. So we checked into it and found out that it wasn't a physical experience, she was being affected by this being. She had picked up a hitchhiker . So we removed him. We had the higher beings come to take him and have him move on. She got well instantly .

“We have a mental and emotional body as well as a physical body. T hese beings have mental and emotional bodies too. They can affect you, they can affect your mood swings and throw you into fear and sadness. When people commit suicide they usually find quite a few of these beings stacked on them. If you can learn how to clear these energies your whole world will shift. If you clear the energies of the room it shifts and changes. People who have been committed or who are a week out of going into one of these sanitariums or whatever, we taught them how to heal themselves, and basically told them there is really nothing wrong with them other than being over sensitive . They need to know how to heal these energies then they can help others with these energies and then they can talk to the higher beings as well. They just need to discern who to work with, talk to and heal these other lower frequencies. I get post cards all the time from people in Hawaii or wherever just having a great time. They have learnt how to clear these energies. It is a much better method than putting them in a strai gh t jacket. I think it is really important to learn how to keep our own fields clear and how to keep your families energies clear by doing these practices.

“ As the veil gets thinner we are going to be seeing some of this. The saying is the closer you get to Nirvana the more the beings rear their ugly heads.

Gaia will regenerate and bring all this energy down

From Laura Eisenhower

“The reason why the archons took hold of the earth so quickly was because of that leak. And as much as they try and control and rule over Gaia they are dealing with a conscious being. The rescue plan really got in there and has protected us ever since. Gaia is just like the human body.

“If we see ourselves on the feminine level similar to Gaia then look what has happened to her, she has HAARP technologies controlling her weather creating natural disasters, oil spills, ozone holes, there has been such an immense mistreatment that the healing process is a very difficult process.

“Gaia is not just a planet. Gaia is connected to all these different races and the goddess energy, like Hathor connects to Pleiades. Isis connects to Sirius and not to focus solely on the feminine, masculine energy's do as well.

“The earth is the naked soul of the mother. If one looks at nature on this planet, it is like our soul. We are living inside of a soul in a sense because we are made of fire, earth, air and water. When we do our astrology those are the things we are ruled by. The alchemy is the fifth element. Spirit comes in, and shifts everything from the lower density into a higher frequency. We can use the divine feminine, Sophia, to transform our lives.

“The regenerative creative power of the universe is returning. It is functioning the same way we are in terms of the laws of nature on a consciousness level.

“ Imagination is what created everything. It is what everybody really longs for. Everybody misses that aspect. We have been born to alter what programmed us to forget. Nothing can stop us from accessing our higher selves. You don't have to look outside for GODDESS / GOD, this energy is within us and that is the process of our alchemy. The zodiac is a great gift and so is kundalini to allow us to experience our strengths and weaknesses. If one is connected to higher self you find that miracles are easier to create. You are more in the flow of who you really are.

“We are working towards better integration of the sexes , and that cannot come about until the spiritual values are given justice. The integration of the two creates the alchemy that transforms this lower world into a higher vibration . We are dealing with the fact that people don't want to expand into the totality of their wholeness. The process right now is moving up in chakra awareness, integrating the higher and lower worlds.

WILLIAM DE SWART presentation entitled ‘SECRET NUMBERS OF GOD'

“Jim Morrison whose father was a general in the US army, said,

“There are things which are known that are light and those that are unknown which symbolise darkness and in between them are the doors.”

“Regarding the meaning of numbers, Plato was at the forefront of this and he said many interesting things about numbers which I found to be all true. He said the first thing you must do when you look at numbers is look at odd and even numbers because they have very distinct properties . He said if you look at even numbers 2, 4, 6 and 8 they have got no centre, they are empty in their centre. There is no centre number and they are female in nature. He said there are five odd numbers. And they do have a centre. If you look at the number three for instance, there is a one in the centre. Odd numbers have a one in the centre. He said they are male.

“One thing we are familiar with is the Platonic solids. Plato is the philosopher that introduced them to us. The property of a Platonic solid is that every side is of equal length, a nd all internal angles are equal. There are only five of those. They obviously predate Plato.

“Six circles fit around the 7 th . We have said that the centre is empty. It is a zero. Don't count the one in the centre and that is symbolic of the number ten. If you don't count it , In all the research I have done it has always held fast.

“Plato said the circle had a sphere with the most perfect shape. He also said that 6 was a perfect number. T he number of the circle is six. If you look at an astronomy book you will find that the sun is the most perfect circle in the solar system by far because all the planets are slightly flattened. The sun is only six miles flattened; six out of almost a million miles. The ancients did give every single planet a number. For instance they gave Mars five, and the ancients gave the sun the number 6.

“The perfect solution is when the number 6 is in a unified state.

“Look at the 5 Platonic solids. Look behind them and they are all structured upon the hexagon number 6, even the Cube. These figures are drawn in 2D to a 3D perspective. This is another way of saying that the number 6 is unified. Really – no opposites. Six makes the 5 Platonic solids ‘ONE' .

“If the number of a circle is six, the number of a diameter is five, which is the number of Mars, which is the number of conflict. The 5 th Mayan number was given a straight line. Zeus the so called king of the gods had a lightning bolt as his main weapon. He is the mind in conflict enthroned as god. The conflicted mind is something you can say is naturally there. It is the inability to control the conflicted mind that drives us to do crazy things.

“If you draw a pentagon which is the number 5 and you make every side 1 unit then you get that famous ratio 1.618. 1.618 has its origin the number 5.

“The plants grow in what they call the Fibonacci series. Every number is the sum of the previous two numbers. That particular series has the ratio of PHI embedded in it. All plants fundamentally grow according to that ratio.

“Keep your eyes on Unity” Plato

And the circle is the mind at peace. The great masters like the Jesus and the Buddha have halo's. Halo's are circles and show they have overcome these conflicted thoughts. They have transcended, they have actually undone them and negated them through that right angle. They are no longer bothered by this conflict because they have realised that this conflict was not real. We live in a conflicted world because we think that conflict is real. The number 6 is the word solution. Solution has got the cypher sol in it and Sol is the Latin for the sun. It is again telling you that 6 is the solution. It is also the number of the mind at rest or the mind going beyond conflict.

From A'shayana Deane

“Three primal sound fields in the energy matrix and three primal light fields in the time matrix. Three primal life force currents : Kristalla feminine magnetic called EIRA. Ktistos masculine electrical called ManA. 12 Reuche pillars 6 feminine EIRA and 6 masculine ManA when interacting create a 13 th pillar. This is the unity of masculine and feminine ManU.”