Chris McGregor and the Blue Notes, Pam Pam, Antibes-Juan les Pins, July 1964. Photo © Denis-Constant Martin.
This article is a translation of the introduction I wrote for the forthcoming French edition of Maxine McGregor’s book, Chris McGregor and the Brotherhood of Breath, My Life with a South African Jazz Pioneer, Makhanda (McGregor 2013), to be published by the Presses Universitaires du Midi (Toulouse University) in 2025.
[…] infants begin life as musical beings, being responsive to the musical primitives or universals that are the foundation of all styles of music.[1]Sandra Trehub, “Musical Predispositions in Infancy”, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 930, June 2001: 12; researchgate.net, accessed July 31, 2023.
When the six Blue Notes appeared on the stage of the Antibes-Juan-les-Pins Festival in July 1964, we, French spectators, had no idea of who they were, or where they came from, musically speaking. Some of us did know of apartheid and realized how a multiracial orchestra must have been difficult to form and maintain in South Africa. We had probably heard some kwela tunes, a few songs by Miriam Makeba, but to most of us the endorsement of Dollar Brand (as Abdullah Ibrahim was then known) by Duke Ellington (Duke Ellington presents the Dollar Brand trio[2]The references of records mentioned in this article are given in the discography at the end. ) was only printed news as very few had listened to the record made by the Cape Town pianist in Paris in 1963. We could hardly imagine that there was a lively tradition of jazz in South Africa and the twenty minutes the Blue Notes were allowed to play caused both amazement and enthusiasm. They were fire, modernity with roots and fragrance, feeling and emotion; they were moved by an incredible energy which made their disappearance backstage almost painful.
These musicians, in less than a decade, were to exercise a major influence on the evolution of jazz in Europe; but that could not yet be foreseen. The stage time they had been given was definitely too short and we had not been able to really get into their music[3]The French Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA) keeps in its archives a video recording of two tunes played by the Blue Notes on the stage of the Antibes Festival; unfortunately, it does not appear in its on-line catalogue. However, a short excerpt of this concert can be found at, accessed May 24 2023.. French magazines expressed this feeling in astounded words that underlined how difficult it was to write about this surprising orchestra. The title of Jazz Hot was: “The South Africans, following in the footsteps of Dollar Brand, did send a strange and passionate message”[4]Jazz Hot 201, September 1964: 14, and its contributor reporting on the show wrote:
The first night, there was a strange group. A short trumpet player with narrow shoulders, whose neck was excessively inflated, trying to emulate Dizzy Gillespie and playing like him a bent trumpet, a tenor saxophonist whose slanting eyes never laughed, a troubled alto player, a bassist whose head was oscillating in extasy and a forcefully hard-hitting drummer, never monotonous in his swinging madness, and a curious white piano player, with a browbeaten look and a very nice touch. A strange aggregation […] delivered a passionate and strange message […] They were the South Africans, extraordinary in their fervour and their faith, producing a jazz which was at the same time brutal and flamboyant, hybrid and rich, beautiful.[5]Philippe Koechlin, “Le festival, côté salle” , Jazz Hot 201, September 1964: 23.
In Jazz Magazine, Jean-Louis Comolli’s comments were replete with ambivalence:
They harp on about the most cliché themes of modern jazz, and yet, without a doubt, their music is not only original but sincere and they sometimes feel it more authentically than their models […] They played only one night at the festival, but in the following days, every evening in a bar with an open terrace. There, they wore themselves out, delighted in playing and causing massive traffic jams. It was enjoyable to go there and just listen for hours to these musicians offering a lively, sharp, inventive jazz, unclassifiable because all over unknowingly irreverent, unwillingly iconoclast because most often stronger at destination than at its departure from America.[6]Jean-Louis Comolli, “Antibes 64”, Jazz magazine ;110, Septembre 1964: 24 & 26.
The Blue Notes were a group, the combination of six original personalities. Chris McGregor was their federator rather than their leader, a role that he continued playing with the various Brotherhoods of Breath. And one of the roots of his particular musical genius lies precisely in the capacity he demonstrated from the start to empathize with other musicians’ inclinations, to draw the best from them, and to facilitate their co-operation with fellow instrumentalists in the band. He could be that sort of a musical cornerstone because of his character, shaped by his intimate experience of several facets of South Africa within a family in which cultural open-mindedness and care for the others are rules of life; and also because of his unique musical talent. I am afraid it is impossible to do justice to Chris McGregor the musician in just a few pages. I shall therefore only try to pinpoint what, I think, are the most important features of his music, what makes him one of the great musical innovators of the late 20th century.
Chris McGregor has always been preoccupied with form. He confessed to journalist Roger Cotterell:
I am permanently looking for continuity. I am obsessed with form […] but freedom is not just freedom, and discipline is not just discipline.[7]Roger Cotterell, “Chris McGregor: Wurzeln in Afrika” [Roots in Africa], Jazz Forum 46, 1977: 43; polishjazzarch.com, accessed May 23, 2023.
His “obsession” with form underlay his production all along his career. As he clearly articulated, he permanently aimed at the best balance between freedom and discipline while allowing his partners an ample margin of freedom within the frameworks he had designed, in order to attain a dynamic cohesion, the source of unique creations. The foundations of his conceptions developed from three main fonts of music: South African, European and Unitedstatian[8]I am using this term rather than “American” to take into account objections from, in particular, scholars from middle and South America, and the Caribbean Islands who consider that it is improper to use America to refer to a country that is only a segment of the whole continent (North and South) and the Islands that actually constitute America (see: Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, article “Estados Unidos”, accessed August 28, 2023). It translates the Spanish estadounidense and the French étatsunien (fr.wiktionary.org, accessed August 28, 2023).. His quest for form unfolded in four stages – which can be circumscribed thanks to recordings – during which the flows from his sources of inspiration permanently intermingled: from 1962 to 1965, from 1965 to 1971, from 1971 to 1977, and from 1977 to 1990.
SOURCES OF INSPIRATION
Chris McGregor spent his youth in a region where the majority of the people spoke isiXhosa. The musics he heard then and which made a strong and long-lasting impression in his mind were not only the protestant hymns sung at the church where his father was the leader, but the singing and the dance music that pervaded the soundscape around him.
Xhosa musics
The musical bow was probably one of the first musical instruments human beings played and the musical bow family is one of the most widespread around the world, even today. It exists in Africa, in the Americas, in Oceania, and in parts of Europe and Asia. There are many types of musical bow (Rycroft 1984; Tracey 2003). A bow, whether the mouth plays the role of a sound box (mouth bow), or the sound box is made of a dried gourd, can produce one or several fundamentals and as many as six or seven of the related overtones. In southern Africa, bows are extremely common. In the isiXhosa speaking region of South Africa (the former Transkei), on can find two main types of musical bow: the umrubhe (mouth bow played by rubbing a twig on the string) and the uhadi (bow with a gourd resonator played by hitting the string with a twig).
The principles upon which bow musics are played are identical. The fundamentals emitted by the string, be it rubbed or hit, are generally one full degree apart; they alternate in rhythms that do not necessarily materialise the beat – frequently marked by hand clapping or foot tapping – and provide ostinatos upon which the overtones can be used to design a melody.
Vocal polyphonies seem to derive from the same system: the soloist can extemporise above the ostinato based on the fundamentals, using the scales they suggest (Rycroft 1967). This illustrates what ethnomusicologist Simha Arom calls “ostinato with variations”, identified in central Africa but widespread in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa (Arom 1985: 93). It can be heard for instance in compositions by Dudu Pukwana such as The Bride, and also in You and Me (Sejui) by Peter Segona arranged by Chris McGregor.
Singing accompanied by hand clapping and foot tapping, almost always associated with dancing, obey cyclic structures. Repeated cycles comprise a given number of beats and each voice can use a different melodic-rhythmic cell and enter the polyphony at different points. According to musicologist David K. Rycroft:
In any choral song there are at least two voice parts singing non-identical texts. The temporal relationship between these parts observes the principle of non-simultaneous entry. In a few songs this is realized through simple ‘call and (then) response’ antiphony. But overlapping phrases are more common, and this technique gives rise to some fairly complex forms of polyphony.
(Rycroft 1967: 88-90)
When the system of non-simultaneous entry with overlapping phrases gains its full momentum, a soloist may leave her or his fixed part and improvise above the chorus (Rycroft 1967: 93; Dargie 1988: 87-88). David K. Rycroft represented this system with the following figure: (Rycroft 1967: 97)[10]This figure represents a Zulu song accompanied with an umrubhe bow. It shows the structure of a cyclical polyphony with non-simultaneous entries. I have selected it because of its clarity. It also precisely describes the working of Xhosa polyphonies and has been frequently used by Deidre Hansen in her dissertation on Xhosa musics (Hansen 1981: 119, 121, 124, 136, 329, 352, 354).
This structure appears, with some adaptation, in several arrangements of compositions by Dudu Pukwana and Mongezi Feza played by diverse Brotherhoods of Breath, as well as in Do It (Eclipse at Dawn), The Serpent’s Kindly Eyes (Bremen to Bridgwater), or Country Cooking (Country Cooking) by Chris McGregor.
African Jazz and mbaqanga
The adaptation of the system of Xhosa vocal polyphonies to jazz can be noticed in recordings of African Jazz dating back to the 1950s and may indeed have been used before being recorded. Musicologist Sazi Dlamini states that:
The harmonic shift between two chordal roots a major second interval apart is entrenched in the music and tunings of traditional Xhosa bows, as well as in the Xhosa rhythmic polyphony of staggered vocal entries (Hansen 1968, Dargie 1988). The jazz potential of these elements was of course intimated much earlier than at the time of their popularisation […] The early use of indigenous elements in South African jazz can be heard in compositions by vocal groups such as the Modernaires and WoodyWoodpeckers (in their close harmony vocal style), or Tete Mbambisa’s Msenge, as well as in pioneering instrumental compositions such as Columbus Ngcukana’s Mra.
(Dlamini 2009: 167).
In addition to the names cited by Sazi Dlamini, one could also mention Eric Nomvete and the Havana Swingsters in 1954-1955 (Township Swing Jazz! Vol. 1) as well as his famous performance of Pondo Blues at the 1962 Cold Castle Jazz Festival (Cold Castle National Jazz 1962 Festival) (Dlamini 2009: 168); MacKay Davashe and the Jazz Dazzlers in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s; the Orlando Seven where Dugmore “Darkie” Slinger’s powerful trombone provided the basic ostinatos (Township Jazz Swing! vol.2). It seems quite possible that Chris McGregor had an opportunity to hear these groups and/or their recordings during his formative years.
It is certain that he met MacKay Davashe (to whom he dedicated Davashe’s Dream performed by the first Brotherhood, Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath). However, the strongest influence was probably exercised by Tete Mbambisa who acted as a mentor for Dudu Pukwana, Nick Moyake, Johnny Dyani, Mongezi Feza, and Louis Moholo, that is the full line-up of the Blue Notes. He also, according to Sazi Dlamini:
[…] captured Chris McGregor’s musical imagination with his choreography and piano-derived close harmony arrangements for vocal ensembles […].
(Dlamini 2009: 88, note 31)
Moreover, Johnny Dyani played piano behind the Four Yanks, a vocal group led by Tete Mbambisa, so did Dudu Pukwana in addition to playing the alto saxophone, and Nick Moyake appeared at one time among the singers.
Available recordings of Tete Mbambisa and the Four Yanks (Msenge in From Marabi To Disco)[11]This composition was later arranged by Chris McGregor and appeared under the title Msenge Mabelelo (McGregor) in Blue Notes in Concert. are contemporary with the first recordings by Chris McGregor or date from the time when the first Brotherhood was formed (Tete’s Big sound[12]Dudu Pukwana’s composition The Bride is, as Umthsakazi, the first track on this disc. ). They show nevertheless how Tete Mbambisa used the system of melodic-harmonic staggered cycles based on two or three fundamentals, with occasional overlapping. One can assume that he already used these techniques in arrangements he wrote in the early 1950s and that it may have influenced Chris McGregor’s music writing.
Protestant hymns
At the time when Chris McGregor was having his “first counterpoint lessons” by listening to “Xhosa women’s responsorial songs with overlapping entries”[13]Quoted in McGregor 2013: 2-3. in Blythswood, a Presbyterian mission headed by his father, he also imbibed Church of Scotland’s hymns as well as Moody and Sankey’s which were sung during the services (in the course of which he often played the organ). Their style had been adapted and reinterpreted by African composers on the basis of vernacular musics as soon as the late 19th century. European hymns as well as their Africanised versions were rendered in an idiosyncratic manner by the young faithfuls who also enjoyed dancing to tunes orally transmitted or to township jazz-influenced new styles heard on the radio (Hansen 1981: 341-342).
Consequently, for Chris McGregor, there was no discontinuity between western hymns and Xhosa vocal music; when he accompanied the choir during the service, he had to keep in tune with what was actually sung rather than follow the scores he was supposed to play
(McGregor 2013: 3).
Western “art” music
As a youth Chris McGregor was quite impressed by military marching bands, but it was through piano lessons that he became familiar with European “classical” music. He got in depth with this literature later when he went to study at the University of Cape Town College of Music, and acquired a wide knowledge of it, that included 20th century composers such as Claude Debussy, Béla Bartók, Anton Webern and Arnold Schönberg. He told British trumpet player and composer Ian Carr:
I had a Debussy phase and a Bartók phase… got deeply into Bartók and played the Mikrokosmos pieces and studied the concerto for two pianos and percussions. I was knocked out by him and still am. Schönberg – I did the first South African performance of his little suite for piano [Klavierstucke] opus 33A. I was playing Webern too – the Variations.
(Carr 2008: 101)
Even if he quite soon abandoned his studies at The College of Music, he never lost his interest for the music he learned there. Later, when living in England or in France, he always kept on his piano scores of the composers he particularly liked. His harmonic ear was fashioned by listening to Xhosa vocal polyphonies and Africanised religious repertoires, as well as by playing Western “classical” or modern compositions; eventually this combination deeply permeated his own writing for big bands.
Jazz
Professor Christopher Ballantine conducted a thorough analysis of the progressive Africanisation of Unitedstatian musics in South Africa during the first half of the 20th century (Ballantine 2012). After WWII, when Chris McGregor discovered jazz, a new style called be-bop began to circulate via imported records. In Cape Town, “Cup and Saucer” Nkanuka, one of the most influential South African jazz musicians of the 1950s, with whom Chris McGregor played, testifies:
I remember my first LP I bought of small bands, was by Charlie Parker. It was a 10 inch record. There were Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, featured on the record, Miles Davis, and pianists like Winton Kelly.
(Rasmussen 2003: 224)
A few recordings made in South Africa provide evidence that local musicians were aware of be-bop and had started adopting it in the 1950s. John Mehegan, a pianist and teacher at the New York Juilliard School, brought into the studio trumpetist Hugh Masekela, trombonist Jonas Gwangwa, and saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi to interpret his arrangements, which had a somewhat Tadd Dameronian fragrance (Jazz in Africa). The first volume opens with a “Venda Introduction”, played on a mbira lamellophone (emitting two fundamentals) but has no relation whatsoever with the rest of the disc and seems to be there just as a “totem” justifying the title Jazz in Africa.
Apart from it, the musicians play jazz standards in a be-bop spirit, including Round Midnight (Thelonious Monk). There is, in the second volume, a composition credited to MacKay Davashe but referred to in the liner notes as “vernacular”; it is submitted to a double modernist adaptation: one by Kippie Moeketsi, the other by John Mehegan. The first volume ends with a piece played on the pennywhistle, without a trace of kwela. These records confirm that, at the end of the 1950s, a number of young South African jazz musicians, starting with Kippie Moeketsi, mastered the be-bop idiom. The three wind players were part of the group led by Dollar Brand that recorded, not long after, Jazz Epistle, Verse 1, considered as the South African bop manifesto.
In the interview quoted above, “Cup and Saucer” Nkanuka also highlighted the role a few young white jazz musicians played in introducing be-bop to the black musicians they used to play with:
[…] we owe our gratitude very much to these white musicians. These white musicians used to go to us and I think it was them who got us out of this big band mbaqanga stuff, into jazz. They used to come and hire a piano somewhere where there was a nice piano. And then they used to play for us there, we used to listen and get inspired until, eventually, at the end of the show, we used to sit in and try and play too, until we were in the mainstream. This was so important. Especially the bassist, George Kussel, he was the main guy, he used to bring these white guys here people like Ceci Ricca [drums], Bob Tizzard [trombone], Don Staegemann [drums][14]These musicians later played in bands led by Chris McGregor., the pianist Brian Welsh. […] They were the inspiration behind us. This was long time before Chris McGregor.
(Rasmussen 2003: 224)
Chris McGregor experienced be-bop when he met this group of musicians. Jam sessions in Langa allowed him to understand how to conceive pieces, built on the mbaqanga chords progressions, from entangled riffs, in a way that opened spaces in which soloists could improvise. Therefore, the be-bop he assimilated with musicians who also used to go to and play in Langa did not appear to break with mbaqanga as rendered by Langa big bands. He shared his memories of this period with Christopher Ballantine:
We were fairly consciously beboppers, playing Charlie Parker, but also mbaqanga stuff at dance sessions in Langa. This meant finding a pattern, finding agreement with the guitar especially, and with the bass, but doing quite a lot of ‘punching in’— which, relates to the sort of comping that you do in bebop. In fact I learnt a lot about bebop comping by doing this, learning to create something that falls at a certain place in the bar, or in a four-bar sequence, and then repeating it. This was very good training, because it showed that meanings could change according to context. It might just be an accent in a line; but if other players hear it as implying a circular rhythm, then there is a certain compulsion to repeat that accent. For example, if the accent has the effect of transforming the third bar in a mbaqanga sequence into a first bar, that accent could excite somebody, say the lead trumpeter, to make a phrase that actually begins there.
(Ballantine 2013: 35)
These were also my first experiences of building things from riffs. You’d get the mbaqanga chords going, the lead trumpeter or sax player would improvise a melody, and then, in the next eight-bar sequence, out it would come, voiced and all. That was magic to me! Out of this would emerge the most amazing complexity of texture, instrumental colour, melodic interactions, the rhythmic interactions of three or four riffs going together, and a soloist in front, improvising. I didn’t see a contradiction between these two (bebop and ‘township’), so much as a complementary relationship of linear and circular procedures. It seemed to me that the same skills were being demanded […]
As a musician, you quickly understand there are other things going on in mbaqanga. Bebop makes a bridge between itself and its classical background; you’re dealing with fairly sophisticated harmonic languages. Mbaqanga offers a nice counterbalance: a rhythmically oriented music in which you look for other aspects, such as rhythmic and melodic depth. I don’t like to say ‘polyrhythmic’ as people always get the wrong idea. I mean, there’s a lot going on there.
Chris McGregor always displayed a willingness to look for complementarities between traits particular to different styles, as well as a determination to find a way to associate them; this willingness and determination remained at the heart of his approach to music until the end. Then, obviously, to him, be-bop was not limited to Charlie Parker but also included Thelonious Monk, who is clearly present in his piano playing as soon as Jazz/The African Sound (1963) and Township Bop (1964) until the piano solos of Sea Breezes (1987) where he even evokes Monk’s roots in stride (Sweet as Honey composed on the day of Monk’s demise) and in Country Cooking (Country Cooking).
However, Chris McGregor also listened to many other bop or post-bop pianists such as Red Garland, Winton Kelly, Bobby Timmons, and Tommy Flanagan. Moreover, in what pertains to form, one cannot underestimate Charles Mingus’ importance. The spirit of his compositions characterised by a complex structure in which sophisticated arranged sections alternated with “windows” of free improvisation, as is the case in his Fables of Faubus[15]Especially in the lengthy versions recorded live during the 1964 European tour of the Mingus Workshop (Levallet & Martin 1991)., was so compelling that he probably could not ignore it. It underpinned very early the interpretation of Blues Story performed at the 1962 Cold Castle National Jazz Festival (Dlamini 2009: 159) and was still perceptible in Up to Earth (1969). Sazi Dlamini therefore emphasised the “unmistakable hard bop leanings of the Blue Notes’ sound already evident by the end of 1963.” (Dlamini 2009: 215)
When talking about the music of Cannonball Adderley or Horace Silver, commentators often used fuzzy labels such as “Soul Jazz” or “Hard Bop” to underline the inclusion into modern jazz of elements borrowed from blues and gospel. Both Adderley and Silver were sometimes mentioned à propos of the first Blue Notes. Following their appearance at the Antibes-Juan-les-Pins festival in 1964, Horace Silver’s influence was frequently mentioned, this association being probably reinforced by the fact that the pianist’s quintet also featured on the program of the festival.
But there is no doubt that the demonstration that South African musicians (especially black ones) could be and play modern could find substance in the example of Adderley’s and Silver’s groups. They had shown that being modern could also encourage claiming roots in the history of their music and transmute these roots into an original language. School Boy by Dudu Pukwana illustrates how South African musicians adopted and adapted this approach to their jazz making; this is probably a reason why this tune was frequently played by the Blue Notes in South Africa.
It was recorded in Township Bop (1964) and played during a concert given at the Rondebosch Town Hall in June 1964 (just before their departure for France) and, on this occasion, Mongezi Feza quoted Blues March by Benny Golson, which was emblematic of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, another important group labelled “soul”. In the same interpretation, Chris McGregor’s solo fleetingly alluded to Bobby Timmons’ Moanin’, another extremely popular item in the programmes of the Jazz Messengers[16]Unissued cassette communicated by the late Tony McGregor whose support and kindness I wish to acknowledge here.. It should not be forgotten that the Jazz Messengers, like the Horace Silver or Cannonball Adderley combos did not introduce a music that just marked a “return to the roots”; they were also workshops where innovations were taking place. This is particularly obvious in the productions of the Jazz Messengers during the period when Wayne Shorter was their musical director. His compositions were harmonically complex and his solos had started using John Coltrane’s experiments to open new improvisational perspectives[17]Listen, for instance to one of their 1961 live recordings; for instance: 13 May 1961, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.. The Blue Notes were still playing in that manner when they arrived in London. Ian Carr remembered:
Their music had its own strongly individual flavour even then, but it seemed to come out of the Horace Silver/Art Blakey sort of school, though the McGregor band gave the impression of being much wilder and more abandoned than the Jazz Messengers.
(Carr 2008: 105)
Finally, permeating South African and Unitedstatian musics, underlying the musical conceptions of Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington’s influence was ubiquitous in Chris McGregor’s music. It especially contributed to fashion the voicings in his big band arrangements and could be felt in the ballads he composed. Some of Duke Ellington’s songs were directly explored, like Take the Coltrane on Township Bop (1964), Isfahan on Piano Song, vol. 2 (1977), Prelude to a Kiss on Sea Breezes (1987). It is also quite obvious that compositions dedicated to members of his family were imbued with an Ellingtonian atmosphere, this is the case in Maxine (his wife) and Andromeda (his elder daughter).
Chris McGregor felt a passion for Duke Ellington very early. He has been quoted as saying:
Since I heard Duke Ellington’s big band on the radio when I was 9 or 10 years old, it’s the big band forever[18]Quotation from a paper, announcing a concert in France by the third Brotherhood with Archie Shepp, in spite of the absence of precise reference, it seems very plausible; core.ac.uk, accessed May 11, 2023.
Maxine McGregor confirms this statement and quotes her husband when he explained the reasons of his attraction to Duke Ellington’s music:
He was one of my ‘wake-up’ experiences. Looking back I wonder if it was not because I heard in him a certain solution to the problem of black traditions in a white world. I think that he came from an environment, not the same but with parallels to the scene I have just been describing. And he found out how to organise all that, how to make it last, give an order to an improvised situation which still respected the individuality of the people involved; how to make it less amateur, with more impact; how to use these elements to make compositions with a true sense of composition, with a true direction and unity. He is a superb example because he managed to it with a respect for the talents, the proclivities and personalities of the musicians which is almost magical. He has always been very noted for this. He wrote for people accentuating how they were best able to play, using things he knew they liked playing and putting these in a context that suited them and brought out the best in them. This I found amazingly humane and very inspiring, and I began to see there was room for that sort of work where I was, and I began making some tentative efforts in that direction.
(McGregor 2013: 12)
Chris McGregor discovered free jazz in South Africa in the late 1950s, listening to recordings by Ornette Coleman. Talking about the Unitedstatian musicians he was then attentive to – Horace Silver, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Parker, Max Roach – he explained to journalist Fara C:
We were very much au fait with the evolution of American music and were anxiously waiting for the time when we would be able to meet with these musicians we only knew through their records.[19]Fara C., Fraternité du souffle, L’Humanité, 16 novembre 1989.
An album released in 1962 by pianist, composer and band leader Gideon Nxumalo illustrates the familiarity of South African musicians with free jazz. In Jazz Fantasia, recorded with Kippie Moeketsi and Dudu Pukwana, he verges on the new style. In Sazi Dlamini’s words, in his “Fantasia”:
[…] Gideon Nxumalo had successfully demonstrated the possible relationships between a technical musical indigeneity of the Chopi timbila and elements of Ornette Coleman’s ‘harmolodic’ conceptions of free-jazz as a relegation of the primacy of chord-based harmonic changes.
(Dlamini 2009: 168)
But, for the Blue Notes, the most important event was their meeting with Unitedstatian musicians. In 1965, the group was playing at the Montmartre Club in Copenhagen; it was then that they had the opportunity of hearing live Archie Shepp, Don Cherry and Albert Ayler, who made a particularly strong impression on Chris McGregor. He met again with him later in London[20]A particular style of free jazz was played in London in the early 1960s by a Jamaican born saxophonist, Joe Harriott, and a trumpetist born in the Island of St Vincent, Shake Keane. But is seems like the Blue Note members never heard them since they never allude to them nor to their records: Free Form (1961); Abstract (1963). and explained to Valerie Wilmer[21]Valerie Sybil Wilmer is a British writer and photographer who specialises in jazz, blues, gospel and Caribbean music. She is the author of: Jazz People (New York, Da Capo Press, 1970) and As Serious As Your Life (1977), republished with a preface by Richard William: London, Serpent’s Tail, 2018.:
[…] meeting Albert and talking with him was like a happy confirmation of things that I’d suspected, things that I was becoming a little up-tight about perhaps. Just being with them [Albert and Don Ayler, drummer Beaver Harris] – Albert who’s so happy – it was a spiritual blessing. Things were pressing on me like, how can I dot it? How can I get out that speed, that energy? And should I try this and try to work that so as not to lose contact with people? I didn’t want to have too many people shaking their heads sadly, as they’re inclined to do where my music was concerned.[22]Val Wilmer, “Chris McGregor: The Brotherhood of Breath”, Jazz Forum 19, September 1969, quoted in McGregor 2013: 88.
From then on, the free jazz expressionism that was already underlaying Dudu Pukwana’s playing became totally integrated in Chris McGregor’s style, without ever erasing the traces of influences he had previously assimilated. This can be heard in Very Urgent (1968) as well as in Up To Earth (1969) where solos and tutti take advantage of the freedom musicians had recently discovered. It lasted until the last Brotherhood, with a variable intensity, depending of the period. It reached a pinnacle with the memorial recording dedicated to Mongezi Feza, who had just died, on which occasion the remaining members of the Blue Notes were reunited: Blue Notes for Mongezi (1975), and, in a very different way, in the concert given in Toulouse in 1977 and published under the title Procession. Later it subsisted and appeared fleetingly in solos by British saxophonist Chris Biscoe, and even less strikingly in those of Guyanese saxophonist Jeff Gordon, members of the third Brotherhood.
When he played solo piano, Chris McGregor integrated the galloping pianisms specific to Cecil Taylor, which he retained as a means to free himself from tonality. This can be heard in Very Urgent (1968), then in Eclipse at Dawn (1971) and, in solo, in In His Good Time (1977); thereafter, it tended to fade out.
THE FOUR STAGES OF CHRIS McGREGOR’S EVOLUTION
Flows running from these sources were permanently reworked, transformed, transcended, because they never ceased to be mixed and intermingled, blending which permanently spurred Chris McGregor’s creative imagination. It seems that the emergence and evolution of these amalgams, and their original results, can be examined by focusing on four periods in his oeuvre. An artificial sequencing indeed, because the dynamics operating in his musical thinking point to an indisputable continuity. Yet I hope it can help to perceive continuities through evolutions.
First stage, 1962-1965: Assessment of the Afro-Unitedstatian heritage through the prism of mbaqanga
The first official recording of a band led by Chris McGregor was made on the occasion of the 1962 Cold Castle National Jazz Festival Moroka-Jabavu. In this group were none of the musicians who were to become members of the Blue Notes, but they did play during the festival, scattered among various orchestras: Dudu Pukwana and Nikele Moyake with the Jazz Giants, Mongezi Feza with Eric Nomvete’s Big Five, Louis Moholo with the Jazz Ambassadors; Johnny Dyani was the only one who was not present. The coming together of these musicians owes probably a great deal to off-stage encounters during the festival.
The Chris McGregor Septet played three pieces: a blues in which Charles Mingus’ influence could be felt; I Like That, a composition by Chris McGregor sounding like swing small groups of the 1930s-1940s, with an Ellingtonian colour and clearly be-bop solos; finally, a modernist version of the traditional When The Saints, the theme of which only surreptitiously appears in the course of Danayi Dlova’s alto solo. This interpretation was actually an ironic reaction to the organisers’ will that participant orchestras had to play “American” Jazz, and nothing else (Dlamini 2009: 158).
The same year, 1962, Chris McGregor was asked to arrange the music written by composer Stanley Glasser[23]Stanley “Spike” Glasser was a professor at the University of Cape Town College of Music; he participated in writing the music of the South African opera King Kong; he had to leave South Africa in 1963 because of his involvement with coloured singer Maud Damons, which was indeed proscribed by the Immorality Act. He went into self-exile in London where he taught at the Goldsmiths College and developed a personal style of “contemporary”, and in particular electro-acoustic, music. for the musical Mr Paljas[24]Mr Paljas was performed at the Labia Theatre in Cape Town on January 13, 1962. It portrays with humour the life of a fishermen’s village severely affected by the decline in halieutic resources. Some tramps (bergies) led by a Mr Paljas, alleged to be a magician (doekom), take charge of the local authority and intend to raise taxes in order to build a lighthouse in the sky… But Mr Paljas arranges for the plan to fail and puts the village back on the track of prosperity. The music was composed by Stanley Glasser and Chris McGregor, the book was by Harry Bloom and the lyrics by Beryl Bloom. It was recorded in 1962 in Cape Town by a band comprising Chris McGregor (piano), Hugh Masekela and Dennis Mpale (trumpet), Blythe Mbityana (trombone), Dudu Pukwana and Nick Peterson (alto saxophone),Cornelius Kumalo (baritone sax and clarinet), Joe Mal (bass), and Columbus Joya (drums). It was issued by Gallotone in 1962 (LP; GALP 1207). The musical raised the ire of the Non-European Unity Movement and was accused of playing into the hands of the Coloured Affairs Department (The Torch, January 17, 1962).. The overture once again sounds like small swing ensembles but some of the songs are deliberately based on Cape Town ghoemaliedjies[25]Ghoemaliedjies, literally “small drum songs” were songs the lyrics of which were often extemporised, the music being constructed on the ghoema rhythm. There were meant to support dancing during festivals and picnics attended by people classified coloured during apartheid. They were the source of moppies, comic songs, which are still sung during the Malay Choirs competition of Cape Town’s New Year Festivals (Gaulier & Martin 2017)..
In 1963, following the Cold Castle National Jazz Festival, Chris McGregor had, for the first time, the opportunity to put together a big band. On this occasion, he wrote arrangements strongly influenced by Duke Ellington (especially on compositions by Abdullah Ibrahim, then known as Dollar Brand), but in which the instrumental sections often play in call-and-response, without overlapping (Jazz/The African Sound). Kippie Moeketsi’s sharp Parkerianisms stick out while memories of Ellington via Thelonious Monk permeate Chris McGregor’s keyboard with fragrances of Fleurette Africaine (Money Jungle).
In 1964, the Blue Notes recorded thrice: Township Bop, at the beginning of the year, Blue Notes at Rondebosch Town Hall[26]Unpublished cassette handed over by Tony McGregor, to whom I once more express my gratitude. in June, and Blue Notes Legacy, from a concert given in Durban, just before they left for France, but only released in 2008.
The last three tracks on Township Bop – Blue Nick, Coming Home (takes 1 & 2), and Dick’s Pick – signal the stabilisation of the group, with Mongezi Feza (trumpet), Dudu Pukwana (alto saxophone), Nikele Moyake (tenor saxophone), Chris McGregor (piano), Johnny Dyani (bass), and Louis Moholo (drums). They display a hard-bop aesthetic inspired by Horace Silver’s quintets and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, with traces of Thelonious Monk in the piano and a double tribute to Duke Ellington and John Coltrane in Take The Coltrane.
Izithunywa, by Dudu Pukwana indirectly refers to the Jazz Messengers since it means messenger in Nguni languages (Dlamini 2009: 176). Moreover, the coda of Blue Nick, another composition by Dudu Pukwana, quotes Blues March, an anthem of sorts of the Jazz Messengers, while in School Boy, Mongezi Feza’s solo quotes the same theme. This record also brings forward the energy and variety of Louis Moholo’s drumming, which differs markedly from Early Mabuza’s style, heard on previous discs. The music played at the Durban concert (Blue Notes Legacy) remains almost identical to what can be heard in the precedent recordings.
Two new things appear however, which show how attentive these musicians were to what was being invented in the United States: According to Sazi Dlamini, Vortex Special flirts with modal jazz as conceived by Miles Davis in So What (Dlamini 2009: 175), while in Dorkay House by Dudu Pukwana, Nikele Moyake wanders on the verge of free jazz. If I can trust my memories (supported by the brief video extracts available on line), the Blue Note’s performance at the Antibes-Juan-Les-Pins festival sounded quite identical to what they played in the months before leaving South Africa.
What is striking in the records published between 1962 and 1965 is that they contain no trace of African Jazz/mbaqanga. Yet we know that the Blue Notes played in that style on certain occasions and that they were very familiar with this repertoire. Another unpublished cassette recorded in 1963, and probably copied from a radio programme, confirms it[27]Again, generously given by Tony McGregor.. It does not feature the Blue Notes (Dlamini: 68-69, 72, 78), except for Dudu Pukwana and possibly Mongezi Feza, but musicians Chris McGregor was frequently playing with, like MacKay Davashe (tenor saxophone), Malindi Blyth Mbityana (trombone), and Early Mabuza (drums). The cassette, titled Blue Notes Play Dudu, contains a version of “M(b)ra” composed by Christopher “Columbus” Ngcukana but credited to Dudu Pukwana (who adapted it) based on the alternation of two fundamentals but not following the usual mbaqanga chord progression (tonic-subdominant-dominant). The other pieces clearly come from dance popular music as played in balls and shebeens in the early 1960s.
One could possibly surmise that the absence of African Jazz/mbaqanga in the recordings that were officially published resulted from a will to project an image of modernism, which contradicted the racialist stereotypes of simplicity and primitivism attributed to black Africans, and consequently to their music.
Playing in a hard-bop way, referring to Art Blakey, Miles Davis or John Coltrane proclaimed that – in spite of the scorn showered on black musicians and black music, and the isolation which apartheid attempted to keep them in – these musicians were in touch with a foreign world that was modern and creative. It manifested their capacity to create, and their determination to reject the norms prescribed by racist authorities, including abiding by the prohibition of forming multiracial orchestras. In 1964, it was becoming more and more difficult to operate publicly on such bases. It was therefore a logical decision to go overseas; it was boosted by the craving for meeting with musicians from other worlds and the dream of finding abroad better working conditions, conducive to the blossoming of their creativity, which was stifled in South Africa.
Second stage, 1965-1971: Assimilation of free jazz tinged with the onset of a renewed interest for Africa
During a BBC programme broadcast in 1965 as part of a series titled “Mbaqanga”,[28] According to Stephanie Vos (2015, pp. 131-132), this quotation from Chris McGregor comes from the program ‘Talks on Mbaqanga’ recorded at the Transcription Centre and not at the BBC Bush House. Chris McGregor declared:
I don’t think any of us South African jazz musicians living abroad ever realized when we left how much we would miss this mbaqanga music. But we do, even though at home we were more often preoccupied with jazz music rather than what you might call hard-core mbaqanga.
(Dlamini 2009 : 227)
Much later he gave further details as to the cause of this feeling:
For me this conscious kind of South Aricanism came in exile. It was caused by homesickness and a certain disenchantment with what from South Africa seemed a magic and distant world – we realised we had our own movement and began insisting on our roots.[29]Quoted in: Eddie Koch, “Marabi in exile: From Transkei to London”, Weekly Mail & Guardian, February 20-26, 1987, quoted in McGregor 2013: 91.
The first recording in which Chris McGregor played in London was organised by saxophonist Gwigwi Mwrebi and released in 1967 under the title Kwela[30]Kwela was probably used in this instance because at that time this word was more familiar to British audiences than mbaqanga. It was republished in 2006 as Mbaqanga Songs.. It contained mostly mbaqanga pieces, carrying sometimes like a Caribbean perfume, which sort of echoed ska and was mixed with highlife aromas from West Africa. The band included Dudu Pukwana, and saxophonist Ronnie Beer, who had frequently played with Chris McGregor in South Africa. Mra (“M(b)ra”) features again in the programme. Sazi Dlamini explains:
[…] the composition M(b)ra (Hey Mbra) or Mra by the Langa (Cape Town) saxophonist Chris ‘Columbus’ Ngcukana […] in its 1967 London rendition by Gwigwi Mrwebi’s Band, was erroneously credited to Dudu Pukwana. The tune, originally composed by Ngcukana and since then a regular feature of South African jazz-influenced repertoires, was introduced by Chris McGregor in a late 1965 BBC programme on mbaqanga as follows:
Our next number features a tenor sax solo by Ronnie Beer. The song is dedicated to the great mbaqanga composer Christopher ‘Columbus’ Ngcukana and written in his style by Dudu Pukwana. Dudu, Ronnie Beer and I often played with Columbus in South Africa and a truer friend is hard to imagine. So it’s with great pleasure that we call this number by what we always called him, his nickname ‘Mra’.
Finally, Sazi Dlamini specifies: “[…] this piece is founded on specifically Xhosa traditional musical sensibilities […]” (Dlamini 263-264)
Mra will thereafter be played frequently by the first Brotherhood; it also briefly emerged in the “third movement” of the memorial for Mongezi Feza (Blue Notes for Mongezi, 1975). It shows particularly well how fertile was the fusion between South African musics and various styles of Unitedstatian jazz, because it is based on the principles which underpin Xhosa musical bow repertoires and vocal polyphonies, what Sazi Dlamini refers to as “Xhosa traditional musical sensibilities” (Dlamini 2009: 264). Another BBC program broadcast in 1968 featured a Chris McGregor Group in which Ronnie Beer replaced Nikele Moyake – who had returned to South Africa in 1965 because of illness and homesickness – with a rhythm section composed of British Dave Holland (bass) and Laurie Allen (drums). They played a suite – whose different parts carry African names like Sabendye Baye, Nikowakwe or Tikoloshi – in which alternate typically South African pieces and others which clearly show the impact free jazz was having on Chris McGregor’s musical conceptions, be it in the tutti or in piano solos where his interest for Cecil Taylor is evident. After discovering what the Ayler brothers, Archie Shepp or Don Cherry were inventing, he started thinking about new forms[31]Val Wilmer, “Chris McGregor: The Brotherhood of Breath”, Jazz Forum 19, September 1969, quoted in McGregor 2013: 88., this is quite obvious when listening to Very Urgent (1968) recorded by a septet in which Johnny Dyani and Louis Moholo played. The interpretations also reveal a particular attentiveness to Ornette Coleman. According to Sazi Dlamini, this disc:
[…] is a document of a stylistic departure from the mainstream jazz-ness of the Blue Notes’ post-bebop compositional approaches, towards an unbridled free-jazz approach.
(Dlamini 2009: 250)
This did not mean that pieces inspired by Xhosa musics were forgotten: the group played them in concert, sometimes with South African singer Princess Patience (Dlamini 2009: 233, 293).
The same Chris McGregor Group went into a studio to record an album released in 1968 under the title Very Urgent. It sounds like an attempt to organise free jazz by entangling arranged parts with free tutti, or solos accompanied by short melodic phrases as a sort of counterpoint. The piano acts like a dissonant goad that does not constrain but stimulates, a role it will systematically play in the Brotherhoods.
In Our Prayer (1969), recorded during the same session as Up To Earth by a trio in which Chris McGregor is backed by Barre Phillips (bass) and Louis Moholo (drums), South Africa appears through evocations of Dollar Brand/Abdullah Ibrahim as well as in a comment of the Barre Phillips solo in the piece that gives its name to the album, played on the mbira lamellophone. The general impression that this album gives is that of a lessening of Cecil Taylor’s influence and of the emergence of a more personal language.
In 1970, something quite unexpected happened, which contrasted with the previous recordings: Chris McGregor played piano for an English guitarist and singer named Nick Drake.
Together they recorded one song Poor Boy included in a disc named Bryter Layter. Although quite marginal in Chris McGregor’s production, it is interesting because he then displayed the true attitude of a sideman ready to adapt himself to very different musical genres and support the leader by adopting his style. Chris McGregor will always behave in the same manner when he had to appear as a sideman. This also shows his flexibility and the extent of his musical culture.
In 1969, Chris McGregor had the opportunity of discovering West Africa and its musics. He was asked to write the music for a film based on Wole Soyinka’s play Kongi’s Harvest. He went to Nigeria, met with local musicians but could not record on the spot the soundtrack he had elaborated. It was eventually recorded in London by a prefiguration of the first Brotherhood, augmented with Ghanaian and Nigerian musicians. The music is imbued with highlife, interspersed with memories of Xhosa musics and free passages in solos possibly played by Mongezi Feza and Dudu Pukwana; in this context, the piano becomes intensively percussive and does not flinch from dissonant chords. Chris McGregor remembered:
It was an invaluable experience. At the same time, it gave the budding Brotherhood of Breath a solid job: good studio work, which I was able to pay correctly […] I had the sensation of beginning something. I was searching for lines of connection, trying to find out how – with this group of musicians who weren’t necessarily of the same culture – to enable things to work out and to unite the whole band. You could say there was a sort of evolution in the music. To some extent, we became very African – there was again this tendency at this time.
(McGregor 2013: 104)
The tapes were unfortunately never published[32]I had the fortune of getting a copy of this recording, thanks to Kei McGregor’s generosity, whom I wish to thank here. but a few of the pieces composed for the soundtrack were played and recorded at the Willisau (Switzerland) festival in 1973 (Live at Willisau).
Third stage, 1971-1977: First Brotherhood, first syntheses
In 1971, the various experiments Chris McGregor conducted with medium or big bands led to a recording in the RCA studio. The orchestra was baptised Brotherhood of Breath, a name that suggests unity, solidarity, and first of all, what is common to all beings, especially human beings, without any distinction: breath. The album was titled Brotherhood of Breath. It opens with a new version of Mra which immediately manifests the group’s dominant aesthetics: a form of South Africanness coloured by Ellingtonian voicings and permeated with elements of free jazz. Several of the themes are based on two fundamentals. They frequently include little cyclical modules, which are superimposed, come back between solos, sometimes appear under them, so that they generate a dynamic and complex polyphony supported by extremely mobile rhythm parts, producing nevertheless a strong and steady beat. An identical spirit of experiment, of combination of several distinct forms can be heard during concerts recorded the same year.
In Bremen (Germany), on June 20, 1971 (Bremen to Bridgwater, tracks A), the band plays: the same type of arrangements based on the use of cyclical modules; a blues (Now by Chris McGregor); free tuttis supported by the cyclical modules that sound like riffs; superimposed ostinatos, reminding of the “ostinatos in the ostinato” identified by musicologist Laure Schnapper[33]A technique frequently found in orally transmitted musics, especially in Central Africa but also in the rest of the continent (Schnapper 1998: 100, 102). (Kongi’s Harvest by Chris McGregor). There are also frequent returns to the theme between improvisations, evoking Charles Mingus; call-and-response structures with overlapping; memories of Tadd Dameron, and even a military sounding march played on a very fast tempo. Such a list may look like a Prévert-style inventory, yet the result of combining these various techniques sounds indisputably coherent. It proclaims a musical originality – based on a combination of openness and structuring – which gives the Brotherhood of Breath a specific place in the European movement aiming at “liberating” jazz in which participated, in their own way, other big bands such as the German Globe Unity Orchestra, the Dutch Willem Breuker Kollektief or British ensembles led by Mike Westbrook. On other occasions, the superimposition of solos, frequently free, with an orchestral backing made of tightly intermingled parts, amounts to a singular form of concerto[34]Brotherhood of Breath, BBC Jazz Club, 19 juillet 1971, unpublished recording kindly handed over by Kei McGregor; Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, Eclipse at Dawn, recorded at the Philharmonie Berlin, during the Berliner Jazztage, November 4, 1971..
The second studio recording of the Brotherhood of Breath took place, again, in the RCA studio at the beginning of 1972. Titled Brotherhood, the music it contains is very close to what the band proposed the year before, the cohesion being better and “concerting” forms having been polished. Some compositions by Dudu Pukwana show how the superimposition of cyclical modules with overlapping can stimulate improvisation (Nick Tete, Do It).
In 1973, two concerts complement the studio recordings and display the whole gamut of the elements entering the fusions experimented by the first Brotherhood. In Travelling Somewhere, taped in Bremen, the blending of free tuttis or solos with reminiscences of the theme in the form of riffs is ubiquitous. Ismite Is Might by Chris McGregor sounds like a refashioned religious hymn, following may be the model set by Thelonious Monk in his rendition of “Abide With Me”[35]In Monk’s Music, recorded on June 26, 1957..
The above series of photos were all taken in Willisau in 1973 by Denis-Constant Martin. 1. Chris McGregor. 2. L-R: Dudu Pukwana, Gary Windo, Evan Parker. 3. Dudu Pukwana. 4. Evan Parker. 5. Louis Moholo-Moholo. All photos © Denis-Constant Martin.
Live In Willisau, from a concert given in a little Swiss town during a tour that was a bit hectic, suffers from the poor sound system of the hall. It is nevertheless possible to note that tuttis are rather unbridled and what makes it particularly interesting is that it includes some of the tunes composed for the film Kongi’s Harvest. In addition to these two live recordings, a French TV programme, Jazz Hamonie, broadcast on March 25, 1973 gives more examples of the first Brotherhood aesthetics as it had been refined after two years when the band was able to play more or less regularly.[36]This programme is partially available at: accessed June 5, 2023.
In 1975, the Brotherhood gave two concerts at the Bridgwater Arts Centre, (Somerset, England)[37]Bremen To Bridgwater, tracks B&C of the album.. With a slightly different line-up, the band seems to continue exploring every orchestral organisation possible: from blues in big band to free tuttis. Certain themes are stretched and provide a launching pad for improvisations. They encompass several cyclical interweaved segments including sometimes memories of Ornette Coleman’s or Albert Ayler’s compositions.
Finally, Procession, Live At Toulouse (1977), recorded a concert which proposed a reduced Brotherhood featuring five South African musicians (including both Johnny Dyani and Harry Miller on basses) and three others who have been playing with the Brotherhood almost from the beginning. Today, it may be heard as the acme of the free period of the big band.
It is characterised by piano introductions or accompaniments with dissonant chords, free tuttis, the reliance on South African structures (especially in compositions by Mongezi Feza and Dudu Pukwana), varied performances of sequences improvisation-return to the theme-riff, generating feelings of diversity while maintaining the presence of the theme under different forms. In addition, passages evoking Duke Ellington’s voicings as well as post-Coltranian tenor saxophone solos (Evan Parker) regularly emerge in this context.
Procession, however, does not provide the most radical example of free improvisation in Chris McGregor’s oeuvre. It is the memorial for Mongezi Feza (Blue notes for Mongezi, 1975) that does. It has been closely analysed by Sazi Dlamini (2009: 324-353) who shows how the performance was spurred by an overwhelming rage caused by the demise of the trumpet player who looked like an “urchin” (McGregor 2013: 39) and was psychologically unstable. According to several testimonies, he had to go to hospital and was not adequately taken care of, which may have increased a chronic anxiety induced by exile.
When listening to Blue Notes for Mongezi one may get the impression that it is just a musical maelstrom devoid of any organisation. Yet, if one accepts Sazi Dlamini’s interpretation in terms of ritual rooted in Xhosa culture, its configuration becomes understandable. It is constructed along comings and goings between ire and appeasements in the course of which appear and vanish innumerable references, sending back to the adventures the four remaining musicians lived with Mongezi Feza: a sort of appraisal of indelible common memories. The first of the original Blue Notes who passed away, Nikele Moyake is remembered. South African heritages (from Xhosa musics to mbaqanga, without forgetting religious hymns as sung in the mission stations) return to the surface. It is interspersed with shadows of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme[38]John Coltrane, A Love Supreme, recorded in 1964., the piano uses Ellington sounding chords, but also remembers Thelonious Monk and Cecil Taylor. The whole recording is marked out by invocations to the departed friend, mostly wailed by Johnny Dyani and in what has been titled Third Movement, the bassist praises his companions in the style of Xhosa imbongis and eventually, after having shouted “Moholo”, adds “Wé McGwegwas”. According to Sazi Dlamini:
This playful exhortation of the name ‘McGregor’ by Johnny Dyani represents a fond camaraderie, and one that is normally reserved for intimate understanding between acquaintances. In this particular context of a deeply intuitive sensitivity between musicians improvising an unspoken musical performance ritual, it represents a confirmation of McGregor’s position as a (Xhosa) cultural ‘insider’.
(Dlamini 2009: 342)
The Blue Notes will again reconvene as a quartet for a London concert, recorded and released under the title Blue Notes in Concert (1977). It indicates clearly what is important for the four remaining members of the group. Msenge Mabelelo, attributed to Chris McGregor, is an adaptation of Tete Mambisa’s Umsenge and underlines what they all owe him. Nqamakwe is the Xhosa name of Blythswood, where Chris McGregor grew up. Manje is the translation of the title of his Now. We Nduna, presented as “trad. arranged by Dyani, McGregor, Moholo, Pukwana” is based on a Nguni call-and-response praise song, Ihubo. Kudala means “a long time ago”. As a whole, the concert presents a series of experiments testing compatibilities between Xhosa polyphonies, mbaqanga, and free jazz (Dlamini 2009: 294, 353-358).
During a concert given at the Jazzclub De Hoop, Waregem (Belgium) on July 1st, 1979[39]Blue Notes, Before The Wind Changes; accessed June 6, 2023., the same group played a double tribute to McKay Davashe and Duke Ellington by interpolating a quotation of Satin Doll (Duke Ellington) in the rendition of the most popular of MacKay Davashe’s compositions Lakutshona Ilanga. They remind us of their fascination for Afro-Unitedstatian music with Manje/Now, the blues written by Chris McGregor. Finally, Johnny Dyani in his Funk Dem Dudu uttered “Amandla Awetu, Afrika Mayibuye”, the liberation movement’s motto.
In 1977, Chris McGregor cut three piano solo albums. The first two (Piano Song Vol 1 and 2)[40]Unfortunately, they have not been reissued in CD and it seems like the original tapes have been lost. appear like tributes and multiply signs of friendship and respect towards: Duke Ellington, Johnny Dyani, Mongezi Feza and Louis Moholo. Their compositions are indeed reinterpreted in the pianist’s very personal style. He mostly plays ostinatos with his left hand while his right hand is free to develop variations on the theme, thus going back to the formula of “ostinato with variations” so common in sub-Saharan musics. He uses the same principle in the third album (In His Good Time), recorded live during a concert given in Paris.
On this occasion he presents a kind of pianistic recapitulation that can, again, be heard as tributes. Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Dollar Brand/Abdullah Ibrahim, Cecil Taylor crop up but Chris McGregor also shows that he had not forgotten his youth attraction to European Romantics.
1977, with Procession, Blue Notes in Concert and the solo albums, signals the end of this third period. Chris McGregor seemed to have reached a point where he wanted to review all the influences he had accumulated and assimilated, so as to take stock of the many possible combinations likely to fertilise his creativity as composer/arranger, as well as stimulate the imagination of the musicians he played with. His creativity and their imagination were indeed inextricably tied up. Together they created original forms, achieved a particular balance between very organised scores and the fire of improvisation. They were always framed by, on the one hand, South African reminiscences, and on the other by the way European musicians, mostly British, reinvented free jazz.
Fourth stage, 1977-1989: Structuring, discipline, and freedom
In 1981, Chris McGregor was asked to re-form a Brotherhood of Breath and appear on the stage of the Angoulême (France) jazz festival. He gathered a group comprising musicians active in London with whom he had for a long time entertained a companionship, South Africans who were to play for the first time with the Brotherhood, and Europeans who already enjoyed a solid personal reputation. After the festival, they recorded an album titled Yes Please. In front of such an aggregation, Chris McGregor, as he used to, adopted an attitude of “energy catalyser”, because, as he explained:
I made my choice according to people that I’d heard and affinities I have with others. This opportunity is like a second birth for the Brotherhood. Alone I would never have got it together unless I had won the pools. Musically I don’t think there’ll be a great deal of change; I’ll use the old repertoire as a base and add new things. The rest will take form on the road. In this orchestra there are at least ten composers and arrangers; it would be idiotic not to make use of them. I’m not really too clever about questions of style, we just work our way through everything available. It’s the spirit that matters – to stay in time with the spirit that moves.
I am capable of sacrificing quite a lot so that this band can live again as long as possible. In the end, a big band is an extra instrument, the most complete. Of course a compromise will have to be worked out for the thing to function – which is my role. I think I can manage to understand the musicians pretty well now, doubtless because I myself am a bit schizophrenic, divided between two personalities, European and African. I am a good energy catalyser.[41]Rod Chapman, “The veldt sound”, The Guardian, October 30, 1981, quoted in McGregor 2013: 179
In this second Brotherhood free jazz is less prominent than before, in solos as well as in tuttis. It comes on the surface mostly in Yes Please (Yes Please), composed and arranged by Austrian trombonist Radu Malfatti, who had been playing with the Brotherhood since, at least, 1973; also, in some solos by Dutch saxophonist André Goudbeek. Chris McGregor’s writing was not radically altered, even if the bases of Xhosa polyphonies provide only a light framework (Sonia by Mongezi Feza; Sea Breeze by Chris McGregor; Yes Please) but, on the whole, the execution of the scores is more literal. It seems like some of the musicians were not prepared to make them their own and transcend the parts they had been given. The rhythm section had been doubled with two basses, South African Ernest Mothle on electric bass, and French Didier Levallet on acoustic bass; and two drummers: South African Brian Abrahams, and Martinican Jean-Claude Montredon. It sounds less powerful than in the previous Brotherhood, although Ernest Mothle provides a solid foundation, while Didier Levallet develops flexible lines.
Duku, written by Dudu Pukwana introduces original voicings thanks to the presence of a cello, lone remnant of what Chris McGregor dreamed of: a whole string section. Commentators’ reactions were somewhat lukewarm. Many were surprised, and expressed regrets that the new Brotherhood did not sound like the old one. Others underlined the positive newness of this one, emphasising its cohesion, the clarity of its rendition of the music, and the new colours that permeated the arrangements and the compositions it played. To Chris McGregor himself, this new version of the Brotherhood was an occasion to put into sounds a writing which was lighter, simpler, more focused on group expression, and in its general spirit, more structured:
There is a direction that’s becoming stronger. I feel a need for simple things, after all the chop of the seventies. So, Yes Please, that structured thing… I wanted to make it light […] The aim was on the group happening, rather than individuals. And this is an African thing. The music I grew up with in the Transkei is a very communal music, and I have clear memories of the beauty of things directed towards a group. So, this development… it’s part of the fact that I’m realising that I’m an African.[42]Graham Lock, “An African way of swing”, The Wire, December 1985, quoted in McGregor 2013: 181.
In spite of Chris McGregor’s wish, this second Brotherhood lasted just the time of the Angoulême festival and the recording of Yes Please. It was only after seven years that a new band could materialise. This time, it gathered musicians who were used to playing all sorts of musics, who were able to master any score, and first of all who were prepared to put their individual talents at the service of the arrangements, and to enlighten them with personal solos. After a few concerts that allowed the band to get together smoothly, among others at the Middelheim festival, near Antwerp (Belgium), in 1987, they went into a studio to cut Country Cooking (1988).
The rhythm section was composed of Brian Abrahams (drums), Ernest Mothle (electric bass), and Thomas Dyani, Johnny Dyani’s adoptive son, on percussions. They provided a steady beat, Ernest Mothle’s bass establishing the harmonic guiding thread. Arrangements for this Brotherhood were quite complex. They basically incorporated combinations used for the previous Brotherhoods: call-and-response forms played in instrumental sections, with or without overlapping (Sejui/Now by Peter Segona, arranged by Chris McGregor); regular come back of modules extracted from the theme used as rhythmic punctuations behind the soloists (Big G by George Lee); memories of swing and bop big bands; recollections of Duke Ellington, even of the “jungle” period. All in all, Chris McGregor’s writing was in this instance characterised by great subtlety and a large palette of colours. This suggests that every past experiment, without which obviously such scores could not have been imagined, had been totally “digested” and could now be transcended to produce amazing and yet unheard-of creations.
For the last appearances of the band, they were joined by saxophonist Archie Shepp, a musician Chris McGregor admired since the 1960s. It amounted to a new coming together long after the Blue Notes discovered the saxophonist’s music in Copenhagen, although their paths had crossed several times in between. Both Archie Shepp and Chris McGregor participated, although in quite different ways, to free jazz’s effervescence; both had drawn lessons from its innovations and selected among its audacities, putting them back on the backdrop of the styles in which they musically grew up; both were great admirers of Duke Ellington; both had a particular relationship to the blues. For the occasion, as can be heard in the concert given at the festival Banlieues Bleues (La Courneuve, France) on March 18, 1989 (En concert à Banlieues Bleues), Chris McGregor refurbished the concerto forms sometimes used with the recent Brotherhoods to put the saxophonist in the limelight.
Singer Sonti Ndebele gave a few interpretations the fragrance of 1950s popular South African songs (Sangema, and even more so in Jikele[43]A song made popular by Miriam Makeba as “Jikele Mawemi”, which tells in isiXhosa about the life of young people in the countryside were they were born, then in the big cities where they go in the hope of finding work, especially in the mines; see; accessed June, 2023. ). Chris McGregor’s ballade titled Mayebuye[44]Which may refer to the slogan “Mayibuye iAfrika”, but also have a sentimental meaning. led Archie Shepp into finding a Ben Websterian sound again[45]In 2022, Archie Shepp confessed to journalist Yvan Amar: “I have tried to imitate John Coltrane’s sound, but I was not at all satisfied with the result. I had to let the breath flow, to remember Ben Webster.” “Le grand entretien”, France Musique, December 1st, 2022; radiofrance.fr; accessed June, 2023.. While on the blues dedicated to Bessie Smith, he evokes Hal Singer, backed by a counter melody provided by the wa-wa trumpet of Dave Defries. Several times, it sounded like Archie Shepp was getting back to the atmosphere which haloed his early recordings, such as Mama Too Tight (1967). Then, on Steam a composition by Archie Shepp arranged by Charles Greenlee, a former partner of the saxophonist who played with Dizzy Gillespie and Maynard Ferguson, the Brotherhood unusually sounds like a modern big band, which illustrates once more the adaptability of this orchestra, the last Brotherhood to record before Chris McGregor’s demise[46]A concert given in Stuttgart (Germany) a week later is available on:
youtube & youtube; accessed June 9, 2023..
Johnny Dyani, the other “kid” of the Blue Notes, passed away on stage in Berlin in 1986. The group, now a trio, recorded a memorial album to pay him homage (Blue Notes for Johnny, 1987).
The music is set on a clearly South African background. It amounts to a comprehensive recapitulation of the itinerary they began to travel along when they were seven. According to Sazi Dlamini:
[…] the album’s repertoires narrate a unique construction of the band’s musical identity […] The repertoires included in Blue Notes for Johnny may be understood in their archival function as preserving memories, and memory occupies a pivotal position in the exilic imaginary.
(Dlamini 2009: 361)
The trio starts from Xhosa polyphonies (Funk Dem Dudu by Johnny Dyani), relive mbaqanga, passes through the blues (Eyomzi by Johnny Dyani), remembers Nikele Moyake (Blues for Nick, by Dudu Pukwana), and alludes to soul jazz and free jazz. The sentimental highpoint of this journey is a rendition of the superb Ntyilo Ntyilo, a melody emblematic of African Jazz, used as a springboard for improvisation by many South African saxophonists and singers.
Ithi Gqi, composed by Johnny Dyani is particularly important because it gives Dudu Pukwana the occasion of reminding the listener about Johnny Dyani’s involvement with the liberation struggle (Jordan 2023) by quoting Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika.
For Chris McGregor, not long after Johnny Dyani passed away, the same memories were rekindled by his “return to the native land”. He had then the opportunity to give a concert in Durban, recorded and issued later under the title Sea Breezes. On this occasion it is an inventory of his pianistic attractions that Chris McGregor draws up: Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk’s stride roots, Randy Weston, Mal Waldron, even possibly Bill Evans. It is developed on the basis of the relationship between the two hands he had established during his precedent solo performances: ostinatos played with the left, sometimes derived from several fundamentals, open the possibility of superimposing several rhythmic formulas in order to give more density to melodic or free improvisations with the right.
During the same period, Chris McGregor played again as a sideman. In 1981, with a quintet led by French saxophonist Doudou Gouirand, he recorded Islands. He did not really adhere to the leader’s musical aesthetics, however he played, as he usually did in such a context, intervened as a goad to stimulate his partners. In 1986, answering the request of the organisers of the Open Ohr Festival in Mainz (Germany), he gathered a group a South African musicians exiled in Europe introduced as “Chris McGregor and the South African Exiles”: Dudu Pukwana, Johnny Dyani, Ernest Mothle, Gilbert Matthews, singer Pinise Saul, with the addition of Lucky Ranku on guitar, and Thebe Lipere on percussion (who are not mentioned on the sleeve notes of the album that was later published). With them, he put together a show (including dancers) baptised Thunderbolt. They played tunes that were unequivocally in the mbaqanga/African Jazz style. Opened with Mra, it included a ballad by trumpetist Harry Beckett, Chandeliers & Mirrors which occurred as a breathing space in which his melodic lyrism could blossom.
Lucky Ranku’s guitar brought a touch of maskanda which complemented the mbaqanga general mood. This production had a deliberate political orientation that was immediately suggested by the name “South African Exiles” and confirmed by Johnny Dyani’s interventions who, at the end of Funk Dem D.P. to Erico (credited to Dudu Pukwana and Johnny Dyani, actually another name for the bassist’s composition Funk Dem Dudu), utters the slogan “Amandla Awethu”; he also dedicated another piece to the United Democratic Front (UDF). It seems like on this particular occasion the “South African Exiles” took the opportunity of using a mbaqanga repertoire to show that the aspiration to change in South Africa was deeply rooted in the ground of musics enjoyed by the underprivileged people during a period when black creativity could still find outlets. On two tracks (Bakwetha, by Chris McGregor and Ernest Mothle, and You and Me/Sejui by Peter Segona and Chris McGregor), the pianist soloing on an electric piano (of a poor quality or badly recorded, or both) reminded of the underlaying foundation of Xhosa vocal polyphonies in this repertoire.
In 1987, Chris McGregor participated in a combo led by Harry Beckett, with occasionally the British saxophonist Courtney Pine. With them, he recorded Les jardins du casino in which he totally places himself at the service of the trumpetist’s versatility, which wanders between be-bop and free, with a few South African touches, and basking sometimes in the sweetness of velvet ballads. The pianist supports the other musicians with chords which enrich the melodies and suggest the harmonic-rhythmic progressions. A little later, he joined a group, led by Unitedstatian trumpetist Jim Dvorak and South African drummer Brian Abrahams, called District Six. In the recording they cut, bearing the name of the group, the piano gives emphasis to the themes by using long sounding or accented chords. The following year Chris McGregor entered studios in Dortmund and Kamen (Germany) to accompany once more Harry Beckett, this time with drummer Marilyn Mazur (born in the USA, but living in Denmark).
In their Grandmothers Teaching, he again assumes the role of sideman: he complements, support, spurs the soloists, but never away from the aesthetics as defined by the leader(s), which this time includes funk pieces with programmed drums. His solos are melodic, sometimes almost sentimental, and relate to a form of post-bop classicism.
This fourth stage closes with Chris McGregor’s passing on May 26, 1989. It was a period of intense activity that can be apprehended a posteriori as a summary and synthesis of his human and musical journey. It appears like a time of achievements. In the memorial for Johnny Dyani, as well as in the piano solo of Sea Breezes, he takes stock of what he shared with Nikele Moyake, Mongezi Feza, Johnny Dyani, Dudu Pukwana, and Louis Moholo. The third Brotherhood sounds like the fulfilment of what he dreamed to achieve with a big band: all the influences have settled down, including those drawn from musicians he played with at different times, in the second and third Brotherhoods, as well as in the various groups in which he participated as sideman. In every instance, he demonstrated an ample open-mindedness, an empathy and sensibility towards partners whose personalities and talents were extremely varied. He displayed an immense adaptability and always endeavoured to stimulate them, to push them forward in their own direction, especially through his piano playing; in turn, the experiences he lived with them contributed to nourish the evolutions of his musical conceptions.
Chris McGregor’s singularity
Chris McGregor’s music was extremely original. It was in permanent evolution and it incessantly experimented. He was ready to absorb everything that could enrich and help widen his conceptions, momentarily established at a certain time. They were fuelled by an undisputable creative personality, forged at the fires of Xhosa, European, and Afro-Unitedstatian smithies. He had absorbed in his childhood the principles of Xhosa bow music and vocal polyphonies and succeeded to adapt them to the forms of modern jazz. Compositions built upon cyclical modules based on the alternation of two fundamentals, without, or more often with overlapping, were fused with mbaqanga and the systems of modal jazz, as, for example, exemplified by Miles Davis’ So What[47]In Kind of Blue, 1959. (Dlamini 2009: 175). Reshaped in this fashion, they provided materials for riffs that could accompany and rhythmically support solos. According to Sazi Dlamini:
Throughout his musical career, Chris McGregor’s own references to mbaqanga’s influence particularly emphasised the spontaneity of collective orchestrational processes, and the ultimate polyphony achieved as a result of a rhythmic syncopation of sectional homophony. Chris McGregor’s ‘first real experiences of building things from riffs’ were gleaned from jam sessions with black South African musicians whose improvisational musical practices, relying on a stable harmonic cyclicity of mbaqanga chords (provided by piano or guitar) […].
(Dlamini, 2009: 232)
However, the scales on which were based the musics for bows and the mbaqanga chord progressions were stretched and enriched by his knowledge of European “art” music and his involvement in jazz. Creations that resulted from these fusions materialised in a style of composition and arrangement that was never altogether prescriptive nor unyielding, for they always took into account the musicians who were to interpret them. He considered that:
What is important is the things that emerge through group inspiration, very interesting things that are not necessarily written by me. They are like beautiful flowers that blossom… in the trumpet section or in the reeds. This is a very South African approach, a popular approach which has its influence from mbaqanga. We do not initially decide on a form; we first take into account how the musicians are placed and size up their creative impact.[48]“McGregor: j’ai essayé d’oublier l’Afrique du Sud”, interview with Bernard Aimé, Jazz magazine 384, July-August 1989, 16-17, quoted in McGregor 2013: 208.
Chris McGregor insisted that members of his orchestras be free to express their own personality, within the more or less loose frameworks he had designed. He had obviously drawn some lessons from Duke Ellington’s attitude towards his musicians. This is the reason why he tended to define himself as a catalyser, a federator, rather than as a leader. He was more curious to hear what the instrumentalists were going to do with his arrangements than wanting to force them into adopting a particular style of interpretation. It probably explains in a large part why the Brotherhoods never remained the same. Their changes reflected the personal evolutions of the composer cum arranger, but these were also guided by the stylistic inclinations shared by members of his successive bands: Passions caused by the discovery of free jazz in the 1960s-1970s; inventions of post-bop/free jazz at the beginning of the 1980s; and formal perfectionism moulded in the practice of very diverse styles in which so-called “world musics” occupied a central place in the late 1980s.
Chris McGregor candidly acknowledged how his genuine interest for the musical ways of the people he played with impacted on his conceptions of writing and his relationship to improvisation. As he explained to Ian Carr:
The musicians in the Brotherhood have a very great deal of freedom. I’m against a doctrinaire division between writing and playing. Some things get written down after they are played – a great deal do – that effort of writing it down helps you to remember it… But writing music has a lot of validity because it’s an easy way for certain basics to be transmitted – to be agreed on… especially for someone like Dudu with an African tradition of music behind him, it provides a good way of bridging the gap between himself and people with a European background. I find it works the same way for me and can be a means of quick communication… but that’s not to forget that ‘writing’ music can simply take the form of suggesting a structure on which to improvise… and the structure can be communicated verbally – in other words, it doesn’t even have to be written down… and people compose while they are playing of course… We don’t anymore play variations on versions of a song by, say, Irving Berlin. We play our own songs and there are places where it is impossible to say that’s precomposed or that’s improvised… Musical structure is going to work itself out with whatever means are expedient to help it…Of course, a music that is totally improvised could conceivably be better structured than a piece written out note by note from beginning to end… I think it’s a definite responsibility in the newer music that you have to be aware all the time that what you are improvising is the structure.[49]Carr 2008: 111.
This confirms that structure and form have always been at the heart of Chris McGregor’s musical conceptions. What gave a unique character to his creations was his aptitude at reconciling the freedom granted to his partners with forms he invented from an amalgamation of various experiences (South African, rural as well as urban, European, and jazzist) that no other South African musician had traversed. With maybe the exceptions of Gideon Nxumalo, Philip Tabane, or Todd Matshikiza, whose talents could not really flourish because, being black, they lived at a time in which a creativity relying on the same bases as Chris McGregor’s was totally stifled. In this perspective, the paradox is that the experience of exile, in spite of all the pains and frustrations it caused, was one of the factors that fertilised Chris McGregor’s imagination, because it gave him the opportunity to work in conditions utterly different from those in South Africa, and to rub shoulders with musicians he probably would never have met in the times of apartheid, conservatism and official artistic bigotry. However, whatever advantages and privileges he derived from being white and living in exile, it remains that he was able to invent an incredibly innovative music from what were at the same time distressing and stimulating experiences[50]The book by Maxine McGregor (2013) is replete with descriptions of these experiences..
Coda: Transcending the legacies
For a long time, Chris McGregor’s music remained inaccessible in South Africa. Some musicians and listeners kept memories of the original Blue Notes, before they left for Europe. But the recordings they did later, as Blue Notes, in the Brotherhoods of in other settings, were not distributed in their motherland, and never aired on the radio. Chris McGregor’s death coincided with the beginning of the end of apartheid. It allowed for a slow process of discovery of the contributions South African exiles made to the expansion of South African music. In 2007, the Blue Notes were awarded the Order of Ikhamanga, silver, by President Thabo Mbeki. The explanatory statement recognised the Blue Notes’:
Excellent achievement in the genre of jazz music, contributing to the development of music in the South African townships and defying apartheid laws by forming a multi racial group.
and concluded:
Blue Notes goes back to a golden age in South Africa’s musical history. The multiracial band’s eclectic and uniquely South African rendition of jazz made them a noteworthy jazz band in the international halls of fame. They were once one of the most popular jazz bands in the country, often defying the tyrannical race laws of the country in order to perform.
(Dlamini 2009:373)
It said nothing of what the Blue Notes created in exile, and did not mention its members’ participation in the Brotherhoods of Breath.
On August 31, 2007, the Johannesburg Arts Alive festival, dedicated a special evening to Chris McGregor. In October 2011, at the request of the Chimurenga magazine, trumpetist Marcus Wyatt assembled a group to play compositions by Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana and Johnny Dyani. It took the name of Blue Notes Tribute Orkestra, entered into a collaboration with Swiss musicians, performed at the Bird’s Eye jazz club in Basel in 2012 and in Pretoria in July 2014[51]In addition to the digital album available at Bandcamp (Live at the Bird’s Eye), an extract of the concert given in Basel can be found on: youtube; accessed June 12, 2023..
In the 1990s, a few compositions paid tribute to Chris McGregor: Chris McG by Didier Levallet, the French bassist who played in the third Brotherhood (on Generations, 1992); McGregorian Chant, Oblation to Chris McGregor by Zim Ngqawana (on Ingoma, 1999) In 2002, Hotep Idris Galeta (Cecil Barnard) inserted in his Malay Tone Poem a Blues for Mongezi and cited the names of Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana, and the Blue Notes in a rap of sorts titled Jazz Hip-Hop African Re-bop (Malay Tone Poem, 2002). Not surprisingly European musicians who were fascinated by hearing or playing with members of the Blue Notes or by the Brotherhoods organised concerts and recordings aimed at fostering remembrance of these bands. A Dedication Orchestra recorded two albums in 1992 and 1994 (Spirits Rejoice and Ixesha (Time).
In 1994, a reconstituted Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, composed mostly of musicians who played in the third Brotherhood performed at the Wuppertal (Germany) Festival and recorded The Memorial Concert. Other European groups also played various forms of tributes to Chris McGregor, the Blue Notes and the Brotherhood of Breath, usually by arranging tunes from their repertoires. Finally, in March 2019, a series of events dealing with the musical inheritances of Chris McGregor and his companions took place in Cape Town. It included a seminar presentation by Jonathan Eato, a saxophone player and composer who lectures at the University of York (United Kingdom), and a concert at the Guga S’Thebe Cultural Centre (Langa) by an orchestra in which participated four members of the third Brotherhood, along with other South African musicians.
As a follow-up to these manifestations, Jonathan Eato started a critical edition of eleven compositions by Chris McGregor, working from scores preserved by saxophonist Frank Williams and revised, when necessary, by Ernest Mothle. This edition should become available in South Africa and is intended to be used by pedagogues, accompanied by audio and video recordings. It aims at allowing music teachers to explain young South African musicians the importance of the Brotherhood of Breath’s legacy[52]See: york.ac.uk; accessed June 12, 2023.. This project, using scores and transcriptions, is clearly indispensable and should contribute to circulating information about the creations of Chris McGregor and his companions. However, it will be necessary to go beyond the possibility to learn about their music; to stir up among young South African musicians a desire to draw inspiration from the Blue Notes and the Brotherhoods, as well as from Gideon Nxumalo, Philip Tabane or Tete Mbambisa; to let new imaginations be carried by their experiences and their approaches; to invent new South African musical forms that can be presented to the 21st Century world.
AROM Simha (1985). Polyphonies et polyrythmies instrumentales d’Afrique centrale, structure et méthodologie, 2 vol., Paris, SELAF.
BALLANTINE Christopher (2012 [1993]). Marabi Nights, Jazz, « Race » and Society in Early Apartheid South Africa, Scottsville, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
BALLANTINE Christopher (2013). “Chris McGregor: Introduction and Interview”, SAMUS 33 (1): 29-45.
CARR Ian (2008 [1973]). “Chris McGregor, The Brotherhood of Breath”, Music Outside, Contemporary Jazz in Britain, London, Northway Publications: 99-113.
DARGIE David (1988). Xhosa Music, Its Techniques and Instruments, with a Collection of Songs, Claremont, David Phillip.
DLAMINI Sazi Stephen (2009). The South African Blue Notes: Bebop, Mbaqanga, Apartheid and the Exiling of a Musical Imagination, Durban, University of KwaZulu-Natal (Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences); researchspace.ukzn.ac.za, accessed January 18, 2023.
GAULIER Armelle & MARTIN Denis-Constant (2017). Cape Town Harmonies, Memory, Humour and Resilience, Somerset West, African Minds [freely downloadable at: africanminds.co.za; accessed April 30, 2023].
HANSEN Deirdre Doris (1981). The Music of the Xhosa – Speaking People, Johannesburg, University of the Witwatersrand, 1981 (A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Arts for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy); zlib.pub, accessed May 5, 2023.
JORDAN Zweledinga Pallo (2023 [1988]), Johnny Dyani: A Portrait, Herri 7, herri.org.za/7/, accessed June 7, 2023.
LEVALLET Didier & MARTIN Denis-Constant (1991). L’Amérique de Mingus, musique et politique : les “Fables of Faubus” de Charles Mingus, Paris, P.O.L., 1991.
McGREGOR Maxine (2013 [1995]). Chris McGregor and the Brotherhood of Breath, My Life with a South African Jazz Pioneer, Makhanda (Grahamstown), Rhodes University Press.
RASMUSSEN Lars ed. (2003). Jazz People of Cape Town, Copenhagen, The Booktrader.
RYCROFT David K. (1967). “Nguni Vocal Polyphony”, Journal of the International Folk Music Council 19: 88-103.
RYCROFT David K. (1984). “Musical bow” in Stanley Sadie ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, vol.2, London, McMillan: 719-723.
SCHNAPPER Laure (1998). L’ostinato, procédé musical universel, Paris, Champion.
TRACEY Andrew (2003). “The Nguni People and their music”, The Nguni sound, South Africa & Swaziland, 1955 ’57 ’58, Utrecht, SWP Records (SWP 020).
VOS Stephanie (2015), South African Jazz and Exile in the 1960s: Theories, Discourses and Lived Experiences, Egham (Surrey), Royal Holloway, University of London, September 2015 (dissertation presented In fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music; https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/26880662/2016vossphd.pdf, accessed July 19, 2024.
(only recordings mentioned in the text; CDs when available)
Chris McGregor
1963: Chris McGregor and the Castle Lager Big Band, Jazz/The African Sound, Henley-on-Thames, Jazzman, 2015 (JMANCD 080).
1964: The Blue Notes, Township Bop, Beckenham (Kent), Proper Records 2002 (PRP CD 013).
1964: The Blue Notes, Blue Notes Legacy, Live in South Afrika 1964, London, Ogun, 2008 (OGCD 024).
1967: Gwigwi Mwrebi, Kwela, (1967); republished in CD as Mbaqanga Songs, London, Honest Jon’s Records, 2006 (HJRCD103) [Chris McGregor, piano].
1968: The Chris McGregor Group, Very Urgent, Uppingham, Fledg’ling Records, 2008 (FLED 3059).
1969: The Chris McGregor Septet, Up to Earth, Uppingham, Fledg’ling Records, 2008 (FLED 3069).
1969: The Chris McGregor Trio, Our Prayer, Uppingham, Fledg’ling Records, 2008 (FLED 3070).
1970: Nick Drake, Bryter Later, New York, Island Records, 1971 (ILPS 9134) [Chris McGregor: piano on “Poor Boy”]
1971: Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, London, Fledg’ling Records, 2006 (FLED 3062).
1971: Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, Bremen to Bridgwater, Silver Spring (MD), Cuneiform, 2004 (2 x CD: Rune 182/183; Lila Eule, Bremen, Germany: tracks A)
1971: Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, Eclipse at Dawn, Silver Spring (MD), Cuneiform, 2008 ( RUNE 262).
1972: Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, Brotherhood, London, Fledg’ling Records, 2006 (FLED 3063)
1973: Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, Travelling Somewhere, Silver Spring (MD), Cuneiform, 2001 (RUNE 152)
1973: Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, Live at Willisau, London, Ogun, 1994 (OGCD 001).
1975: Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, Bremen to Bridgwater, Silver Spring (MD), Cuneiform, 2004 (2 x CD: Rune 182/183; Bridgwater Arts Centre, Bridgwater (Somerset, England: tracks B & C).
1975: The Blue Notes, Blue Notes for Mongezi, London, Ogun, 2008 (2 x CD OGCD 025/026).
1977: Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, Procession, Live at Toulouse, London, Ogun, 2013 (OGCD 040).
1977: Blue Notes in Concert, London, Ogun, 2022 (OGCD 027).
1977: Chris McGregor, Piano Song Vol 1, Bordeaux, Musica, 1977 (MUS 3019).
1977: Chris McGregor, Piano Song Vol 2, Bordeaux, Musica, 1977 (MUS 3023).
1977: Chris McGregor, In His Good Time, Live in Paris, London, Ogun, 2012 (OGCD 038).
1981: Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, Yes Please, Angoulême 1981, Paris, In and Out, 1981 (IaO 1001).
1981: Doudou Gouirand, Islands, Vouvray (France), Disques JAM, 1981 (0681/DG 016) [Chris McGregor : piano].
1986: Chris McGregor and the South African Exiles, Thunderbolt, Frankfurt (Germany), Popular African Music, 1997 (Pam 405).
1987: The Blue Notes, Blue Notes for Johnny, London, Ogun, 2022 (OGCD 028).
1987: Harry Beckett, Les jardins du casino, Wuppertal (Germany), West Wind, 1993 (WW 2080) [Chris McGregor: piano].
1987: DISTRICT SIX, To Be Free, London, Editions E.G., 1987 (EEGCD 53) [Chris McGregor: piano].
1987: Chris McGregor, Sea Breezes, Piano Solo, Live in Durban, London, Fledg’ling Records, 2012 ( FLED3081).
1988: Marilyn Mazur, Harry Beckett, Chris McGregor, Grandmothers Teaching, Wuppertal (Germany), ITM Records, 1995 (ITM 1428).
1988: Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, Country Cooking, Dombasle-sur-Meurthe (France), Great Winds, 2001 (GW 3106.AR).
1989: Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath – Archie Shepp, En concert à Banlieues Bleues, Montpellier (France), 52ème rue Est, 1989 (RE CD 017).
Dollar Brand / Abdullah Ibrahim
1960: The Jazz Epistle, Verse 1, Johannesburg, Gallo Record, 1996 (CDZAC 56R).
1964: Duke Ellington Presents The Dollar Brand Trio, New York, Reprise Archives, 1997 (2-6111).
Other musicians
Art BLAKEY and the JAZZ MESSENGERS, 13 Mai 1961, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Paris, Frémeaux, 2023 (3 CDs box, 5862).
The BLUE NOTES TRIBUTE ORKESTRA, Live at the Bird’s Eye (Basel, Swirtzerland), available at: bnto.bandcamp.com, accessed September 25, 2023.
Chris McGregor’s BROTHERHOOD OF BREATH, The Memorial Concert, Wuppertal (Germany), ITM Records, 1994 (ITMP 970086).
JOHN COLTRANE, A Love Supreme, USA, Impulse, 2002 (589 945-2).
Miles DAVIS, Kind of Blue, Europe, Columbia, 1997 (CK 64935).
The DEDICATION ORCHESTRA, Spirits Rejoice, London, Ogun, 1992 (OGCD 101).
The DEDICATION ORCHESTRA, Ixesha (Time), London, Ogun, 1994 (2 x CD: OGCD 102/103).
Duke ELLINGTON, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Money Jungle, France, Blue Note, 2000 [1962] (525754 2).
Hotep Idris GALETA, Malay Tone Poem, Cape Town, Sheer Sound, 2002 (SSCD 083).
Joe HARRIOTT Quintet, Free Form, Berlin, EmArcy, 1998 [1961] (538 184-2).
Joe HARRIOTT Quintet, Abstract, Berlin EmArcy, 1998 [1963] (538 183-2).
Didier LEVALLET Tentet, Generations, Paris, Evidence, 1992 (EVDC 212).
Tete MBAMBISA, Tete’s Big Sound, Johannesburg, The Sun, 1999 [1976] (CDSRKS(WL) 121).
John MEHEGAN, Jazz in Africa Volume One, Johannesburg, Teal Records, 1991 [1959] (TELCD 2304).
John MEHEGAN, Jazz in Africa Volume Two, Johannesburg, Teal Records, 1991 [1959] (TELCD 2314).
THELONIOUS MONK SEPTET, Monk’s Music, Cleveland, Riverside Records, 2011 (0888072326897).
Zim NGQAWANA, Ingoma, Cape Town, Sheer Sound, 1999 (SSCD 053).
Gideon NXUMALO, Jazz Fantasia, Johannesburg, Teal Records, 1991 [1962] (TELCD 2301).
Cold Castle National Jazz 1962 Festival Moroka-Jabavu, Johannesburg, Teal, 1991 (TELCD 2302)
From Marabi To Disco. 42 Years Of Township Music, Johannesburg, Gallo, 1994 (CDZAC61)
Township Swing Jazz! Vol. 1, Paris, Celluloid, 1991 (66893-2).
Township Jazz Swing! vol.2, Paris, Celluloid, 1991 (66894-2).
| 1. | ↑ | Sandra Trehub, “Musical Predispositions in Infancy”, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 930, June 2001: 12; researchgate.net, accessed July 31, 2023. |
| 2. | ↑ | The references of records mentioned in this article are given in the discography at the end. |
| 3. | ↑ | The French Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA) keeps in its archives a video recording of two tunes played by the Blue Notes on the stage of the Antibes Festival; unfortunately, it does not appear in its on-line catalogue. However, a short excerpt of this concert can be found at, accessed May 24 2023. |
| 4. | ↑ | Jazz Hot 201, September 1964: 14 |
| 5. | ↑ | Philippe Koechlin, “Le festival, côté salle” , Jazz Hot 201, September 1964: 23. |
| 6. | ↑ | Jean-Louis Comolli, “Antibes 64”, Jazz magazine ;110, Septembre 1964: 24 & 26. |
| 7. | ↑ | Roger Cotterell, “Chris McGregor: Wurzeln in Afrika” [Roots in Africa], Jazz Forum 46, 1977: 43; polishjazzarch.com, accessed May 23, 2023. |
| 8. | ↑ | I am using this term rather than “American” to take into account objections from, in particular, scholars from middle and South America, and the Caribbean Islands who consider that it is improper to use America to refer to a country that is only a segment of the whole continent (North and South) and the Islands that actually constitute America (see: Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, article “Estados Unidos”, accessed August 28, 2023). It translates the Spanish estadounidense and the French étatsunien (fr.wiktionary.org, accessed August 28, 2023). |
| 9. | ↑ | “My favourite photo of Chris!”, Maxine McGregor, email correspondence Sunday 30 June 2024. |
| 10. | ↑ | This figure represents a Zulu song accompanied with an umrubhe bow. It shows the structure of a cyclical polyphony with non-simultaneous entries. I have selected it because of its clarity. It also precisely describes the working of Xhosa polyphonies and has been frequently used by Deidre Hansen in her dissertation on Xhosa musics (Hansen 1981: 119, 121, 124, 136, 329, 352, 354). |
| 11. | ↑ | This composition was later arranged by Chris McGregor and appeared under the title Msenge Mabelelo (McGregor) in Blue Notes in Concert. |
| 12. | ↑ | Dudu Pukwana’s composition The Bride is, as Umthsakazi, the first track on this disc. |
| 13. | ↑ | Quoted in McGregor 2013: 2-3. |
| 14. | ↑ | These musicians later played in bands led by Chris McGregor. |
| 15. | ↑ | Especially in the lengthy versions recorded live during the 1964 European tour of the Mingus Workshop (Levallet & Martin 1991). |
| 16. | ↑ | Unissued cassette communicated by the late Tony McGregor whose support and kindness I wish to acknowledge here. |
| 17. | ↑ | Listen, for instance to one of their 1961 live recordings; for instance: 13 May 1961, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. |
| 18. | ↑ | Quotation from a paper, announcing a concert in France by the third Brotherhood with Archie Shepp, in spite of the absence of precise reference, it seems very plausible; core.ac.uk, accessed May 11, 2023. |
| 19. | ↑ | Fara C., Fraternité du souffle, L’Humanité, 16 novembre 1989. |
| 20. | ↑ | A particular style of free jazz was played in London in the early 1960s by a Jamaican born saxophonist, Joe Harriott, and a trumpetist born in the Island of St Vincent, Shake Keane. But is seems like the Blue Note members never heard them since they never allude to them nor to their records: Free Form (1961); Abstract (1963). |
| 21. | ↑ | Valerie Sybil Wilmer is a British writer and photographer who specialises in jazz, blues, gospel and Caribbean music. She is the author of: Jazz People (New York, Da Capo Press, 1970) and As Serious As Your Life (1977), republished with a preface by Richard William: London, Serpent’s Tail, 2018. |
| 22. | ↑ | Val Wilmer, “Chris McGregor: The Brotherhood of Breath”, Jazz Forum 19, September 1969, quoted in McGregor 2013: 88. |
| 23. | ↑ | Stanley “Spike” Glasser was a professor at the University of Cape Town College of Music; he participated in writing the music of the South African opera King Kong; he had to leave South Africa in 1963 because of his involvement with coloured singer Maud Damons, which was indeed proscribed by the Immorality Act. He went into self-exile in London where he taught at the Goldsmiths College and developed a personal style of “contemporary”, and in particular electro-acoustic, music. |
| 24. | ↑ | Mr Paljas was performed at the Labia Theatre in Cape Town on January 13, 1962. It portrays with humour the life of a fishermen’s village severely affected by the decline in halieutic resources. Some tramps (bergies) led by a Mr Paljas, alleged to be a magician (doekom), take charge of the local authority and intend to raise taxes in order to build a lighthouse in the sky… But Mr Paljas arranges for the plan to fail and puts the village back on the track of prosperity. The music was composed by Stanley Glasser and Chris McGregor, the book was by Harry Bloom and the lyrics by Beryl Bloom. It was recorded in 1962 in Cape Town by a band comprising Chris McGregor (piano), Hugh Masekela and Dennis Mpale (trumpet), Blythe Mbityana (trombone), Dudu Pukwana and Nick Peterson (alto saxophone),Cornelius Kumalo (baritone sax and clarinet), Joe Mal (bass), and Columbus Joya (drums). It was issued by Gallotone in 1962 (LP; GALP 1207). The musical raised the ire of the Non-European Unity Movement and was accused of playing into the hands of the Coloured Affairs Department (The Torch, January 17, 1962). |
| 25. | ↑ | Ghoemaliedjies, literally “small drum songs” were songs the lyrics of which were often extemporised, the music being constructed on the ghoema rhythm. There were meant to support dancing during festivals and picnics attended by people classified coloured during apartheid. They were the source of moppies, comic songs, which are still sung during the Malay Choirs competition of Cape Town’s New Year Festivals (Gaulier & Martin 2017). |
| 26. | ↑ | Unpublished cassette handed over by Tony McGregor, to whom I once more express my gratitude. |
| 27. | ↑ | Again, generously given by Tony McGregor. |
| 28. | ↑ | According to Stephanie Vos (2015, pp. 131-132), this quotation from Chris McGregor comes from the program ‘Talks on Mbaqanga’ recorded at the Transcription Centre and not at the BBC Bush House. |
| 29. | ↑ | Quoted in: Eddie Koch, “Marabi in exile: From Transkei to London”, Weekly Mail & Guardian, February 20-26, 1987, quoted in McGregor 2013: 91. |
| 30. | ↑ | Kwela was probably used in this instance because at that time this word was more familiar to British audiences than mbaqanga. It was republished in 2006 as Mbaqanga Songs. |
| 31. | ↑ | Val Wilmer, “Chris McGregor: The Brotherhood of Breath”, Jazz Forum 19, September 1969, quoted in McGregor 2013: 88. |
| 32. | ↑ | I had the fortune of getting a copy of this recording, thanks to Kei McGregor’s generosity, whom I wish to thank here. |
| 33. | ↑ | A technique frequently found in orally transmitted musics, especially in Central Africa but also in the rest of the continent (Schnapper 1998: 100, 102). |
| 34. | ↑ | Brotherhood of Breath, BBC Jazz Club, 19 juillet 1971, unpublished recording kindly handed over by Kei McGregor; Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, Eclipse at Dawn, recorded at the Philharmonie Berlin, during the Berliner Jazztage, November 4, 1971. |
| 35. | ↑ | In Monk’s Music, recorded on June 26, 1957. |
| 36. | ↑ | This programme is partially available at: accessed June 5, 2023. |
| 37. | ↑ | Bremen To Bridgwater, tracks B&C of the album. |
| 38. | ↑ | John Coltrane, A Love Supreme, recorded in 1964. |
| 39. | ↑ | Blue Notes, Before The Wind Changes; accessed June 6, 2023. |
| 40. | ↑ | Unfortunately, they have not been reissued in CD and it seems like the original tapes have been lost. |
| 41. | ↑ | Rod Chapman, “The veldt sound”, The Guardian, October 30, 1981, quoted in McGregor 2013: 179 |
| 42. | ↑ | Graham Lock, “An African way of swing”, The Wire, December 1985, quoted in McGregor 2013: 181. |
| 43. | ↑ | A song made popular by Miriam Makeba as “Jikele Mawemi”, which tells in isiXhosa about the life of young people in the countryside were they were born, then in the big cities where they go in the hope of finding work, especially in the mines; see; accessed June, 2023. |
| 44. | ↑ | Which may refer to the slogan “Mayibuye iAfrika”, but also have a sentimental meaning. |
| 45. | ↑ | In 2022, Archie Shepp confessed to journalist Yvan Amar: “I have tried to imitate John Coltrane’s sound, but I was not at all satisfied with the result. I had to let the breath flow, to remember Ben Webster.” “Le grand entretien”, France Musique, December 1st, 2022; radiofrance.fr; accessed June, 2023. |
| 46. | ↑ | A concert given in Stuttgart (Germany) a week later is available on: youtube & youtube; accessed June 9, 2023. |
| 47. | ↑ | In Kind of Blue, 1959. |
| 48. | ↑ | “McGregor: j’ai essayé d’oublier l’Afrique du Sud”, interview with Bernard Aimé, Jazz magazine 384, July-August 1989, 16-17, quoted in McGregor 2013: 208. |
| 49. | ↑ | Carr 2008: 111. |
| 50. | ↑ | The book by Maxine McGregor (2013) is replete with descriptions of these experiences. |
| 51. | ↑ | In addition to the digital album available at Bandcamp (Live at the Bird’s Eye), an extract of the concert given in Basel can be found on: youtube; accessed June 12, 2023. |
| 52. | ↑ | See: york.ac.uk; accessed June 12, 2023. |