|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
M3H 010CD
|
Group Theory: Black Music is a stunning new statement from South African drummer and composer Tumi Mogorosi. Standing in the lineage of South African greats such as Louis Moholo-Moholo, Makaya Ntshoko, and Ayanda Sikade, Mogorosi is one of the foremost drummers working anywhere in the world, with a flexible, powerful style that brings a distinctive South African inflection to the polyrhythmic tradition of Elvin Jones, Max Roach, and Art Blakey. Since his international debut on Jazzman Records in 2014 with Project ELO, Mogorosi has been in the vanguard of the South African creative music scene's burgeoning outer-national dimension, taking the drummer's chair in both Shabaka Hutchings' Shabaka and The Ancestors formation and with avant-garde noiseniks The Wretched, who featured on Brownswood's acclaimed South African showcase, Indaba Is. Where Group Theory: Black Music moves an established format dramatically forward is in the addition of a nine-person choir. Their massed voices soar powerfully above every track as a collective instrument of human breath and body, and enter the album into the small but significant number of radical recordings to have used the voice in this way, such as Max Roach's It's Time (1962), Andrew Hill's Lift Every Voice (1970), Billy Harper's Capra Black (1973), and Donald Byrd's I'm Trying To Get Home. Features a cross-generational line-up of celebrated South African musicians including guitarist Reza Khota, pianist Andile Yenana, and vocalists Gabi Motuba and Siyabonga Mthembu. Also features Lesego Rampolokeng. For fans of: Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim), Shabaka Hutchings, John Coltrane, Max Roach, Donald Byrd, Abbey Lincoln, Art Blakey. CD version comes in bespoke tip-on CD jacket.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
M3H 010LP
|
LP version. Gatefold sleeve. Group Theory: Black Music is a stunning new statement from South African drummer and composer Tumi Mogorosi. Standing in the lineage of South African greats such as Louis Moholo-Moholo, Makaya Ntshoko, and Ayanda Sikade, Mogorosi is one of the foremost drummers working anywhere in the world, with a flexible, powerful style that brings a distinctive South African inflection to the polyrhythmic tradition of Elvin Jones, Max Roach, and Art Blakey. Since his international debut on Jazzman Records in 2014 with Project ELO, Mogorosi has been in the vanguard of the South African creative music scene's burgeoning outer-national dimension, taking the drummer's chair in both Shabaka Hutchings' Shabaka and The Ancestors formation and with avant-garde noiseniks The Wretched, who featured on Brownswood's acclaimed South African showcase, Indaba Is. Where Group Theory: Black Music moves an established format dramatically forward is in the addition of a nine-person choir. Their massed voices soar powerfully above every track as a collective instrument of human breath and body, and enter the album into the small but significant number of radical recordings to have used the voice in this way, such as Max Roach's It's Time (1962), Andrew Hill's Lift Every Voice (1970), Billy Harper's Capra Black (1973), and Donald Byrd's I'm Trying To Get Home. Features a cross-generational line-up of celebrated South African musicians including guitarist Reza Khota, pianist Andile Yenana, and vocalists Gabi Motuba and Siyabonga Mthembu. Also features Lesego Rampolokeng. For fans of: Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim), Shabaka Hutchings, John Coltrane, Max Roach, Donald Byrd, Abbey Lincoln, Art Blakey.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
JMAN 069CD
|
CD edition with two bonus tracks. Breathtaking contemporary spiritual jazz from South Africa. When Tumi Mogorosi composed this suite for jazz musicians and opera vocalists, he had never heard the previous successful attempts by Donald Byrd, Max Roach or Mary Lou Williams to combine these seemingly "unfriendly" aesthetics. Tumi, born in 1987 and already an accomplished drummer on the Jo'Burg scene, was at the time studying music at the Tshwane University of Pretoria where he became close friends with opera singers working on the same campus. So unlike some of his U.S. peers, Tumi's beliefs are not "religious." Surprisingly, Tumi's suite wasn't influenced by these great elders' masterpieces, but anyone who listens to this album will agree that the suite captures the soaring spirituality that made these experiments of the '60s the beloved classics that they are today. Tumi does not belong to any religious group. This album is neither a jazz mass like Mary Lou Williams' Black Christ of the Andes, nor a compilation of devotional pieces like Donald Byrd's Christo Redentor. Project ELO stands for Project Elohim, the angelic entities of the spiritual scriptures which are, in the drummer's philosophy, a symbol for accomplished human beings. The spirituality the album conveys is attuned to a 21st century syncretic, non-dogmatic vision infused with esotericism. Recorded live with no overdubs in two days by a group of friends, this album captures a moment of Eternity and will defy any idea you may have of what South African jazz is. Tumi's music transcends labels and styles. When composing or playing he is only concerned with being true to the primordial source of life, which cannot be confined to any genre.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
JMAN 069LP
|
LP version with UK '60s style laminate sleeve. Breathtaking contemporary spiritual jazz from South Africa. When Tumi Mogorosi composed this suite for jazz musicians and opera vocalists, he had never heard the previous successful attempts by Donald Byrd, Max Roach or Mary Lou Williams to combine these seemingly "unfriendly" aesthetics. Tumi, born in 1987 and already an accomplished drummer on the Jo'Burg scene, was at the time studying music at the Tshwane University of Pretoria where he became close friends with opera singers working on the same campus. So unlike some of his U.S. peers, Tumi's beliefs are not "religious." Surprisingly, Tumi's suite wasn't influenced by these great elders' masterpieces, but anyone who listens to this album will agree that the suite captures the soaring spirituality that made these experiments of the '60s the beloved classics that they are today. Tumi does not belong to any religious group. This album is neither a jazz mass like Mary Lou Williams' Black Christ of the Andes, nor a compilation of devotional pieces like Donald Byrd's Christo Redentor. Project ELO stands for Project Elohim, the angelic entities of the spiritual scriptures which are, in the drummer's philosophy, a symbol for accomplished human beings. The spirituality the album conveys is attuned to a 21st century syncretic, non-dogmatic vision infused with esotericism. Recorded live with no overdubs in two days by a group of friends, this album captures a moment of Eternity and will defy any idea you may have of what South African jazz is. Tumi's music transcends labels and styles. When composing or playing he is only concerned with being true to the primordial source of life, which cannot be confined to any genre.
|
|
|
|