DOLLAR BRAND - Underground In Africa (LP-1974 / Re-The Sun Records-LP-1979)

Label: The Sun – SRK 786 143

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, 2nd pressing / Country: South Africa / Released: 1979

Original Release: MANDLA ‎– KRS 114 (LP-1974)

Style: Soul-Jazz, Modal, Free Improvisation

Recorded at Gallo Studios in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, March, 1974.

Painting [Cover] – Hargrawes Nlukwana

Producer – Rashid Vally, Independant Records

Publisher – EKAPA

Composed By – Dollar Brand

Matrix / Runout (Side A, Etched): SRK 786143-A

Matrix / Runout (Side B, Etched): SRK 786143-B

A mega rare and original SOUTH AFRICAN lp release / The Sun pressing!

A  -  Kalahari ....................................................................................................... 23:25

B1 - Ornettes Cornet (In Tribute To Ornette Coleman) ......................................... 5:28

B2 - All Day & All Night Long ............................................................................... 5:30

B3 - Gwidza (In Memory Of Campbel Gwidza) .................................................... 4:50

Personnel:

Dollar Brand – piano, flute

Robbie Jansen – alto saxophone

Basil Coetzee – tenor saxophone [1st], flute

Arthur Jacobs – tenor saxophone [2nd]

[unknown] Special Purpose Artist – marimba

Lionel Beukes – bass [Fender]

Nazier Kapdi – drums, percussion

It's easily my favorite Dollar Brand album. Most of his albums fall into a few different categories. You've got your solo piano albums, your friendly Cape Jazz albums, and some collaborations that could at times go way farther than Brand would go on his own (see his albums with Gato Barbieri, Max Roach, or Archie Shepp). But there are a very rare few where he played with an electric jazz band, and this is one of them. Kalahari's bass groove is massive, and its twenty three minutes are spent in an almost Kraut-y trance of cosmic, serene peace jazz that, and I can't stress enough how important this is, never once gets cheesy or friendly or anything of the sort. It is a blissful, righteous side-long trip.
The other three are a droney meditative piece, a funky jazz groove banger with some more killer bass, and a solo piano piece that spends a great deal of time in an impossibly fast permutation of 9/8.

Keep your spirits up and enter Dollar Brands a masterpiece "Kalahari", taken from his supa rare "Underground In Africa" LP. Mr Brand delivers an epic 23 min long afro jazz monster that from beginning to end sets you in a musical trance.

If you find it, buy this album!

GATO BARBIERI / DOLLAR BRAND – Confluence (LP-1974)

Label: Freedom – FLP 40118

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue / Country: UK / Released: 1974

(UK, laminated cover)

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded at Fonorama Studios, Milan, 16th March 1968.

Producer – Alan Bates, Mario Nicalaio

Engineer – Livio Civiera

Photography By [Back Cover] – Jean-Pierre Maurer

Photography By [Front Cover] – Ib Skovgaard Peterson

Design [Sleeve] – Hamish Grimes

A1 - The Aloe And The Wild Rose .................................................... 14:22

         Written-By – Brand

A2 - Hamba Khale! ............................................................................. 2:16

         Written-By – Brand

B1 - To Elsa ........................................................................................ 7:20

         Written-By – Barbieri

B2 - Eighty First Street ........................................................................ 8:36

         Written-By – Barbieri

Gato Barbieri – tenor saxophone

Dollar Brand – piano, cello

A real sleeper – and one of the treasures of the Freedom series! The album's a rare meeting between Argentine tenor player Gato Barbieri and South African pianist Dollar Brand – a true global meeting of the jazz minds, and a recording that's stronger than most of the work either player was recording at the time! The format is incredibly spare – just tenor and piano, plus some occasional cello work by Brand – dark and angular, but also filled with small flowers of hope, flowering in the spontaneous presence of these two titans. Tracks are long, with a free flowing quality that's infused with soul and spirit.

On his second release after recording the Umiliani film score for the “Una Bella Grinta” movie,  Dollar Brand teams up with Gato Barbieri to make a pretty hard hitting, but low key recording which really highlights both the sensitivities and ferocity of Gato Barbieri’s playing and introduces yet another side to this enigmatic player.

In many ways, Confluence feels like an exercise in contrasting shades and dynamic with the really legato modal playing of Dollar Brand, who plays the perfect supporting role, while Gato wails and screeches and honks his way through the recordings giving loads of light and shade textures.

There are moments of pure ‘Free’ Jazz but mostly its an Avant Garde Jaz record in the style of early ECM records. There is a softening behind these heavy blows and a lightness that peers out of the dark chaos of the playing.

This is a collaboration in the true sense of the word. Alternating between scintillating, angry blasts of saxophone and moments of pure beauty (Dollar Brand at his best and most atmospheric on both piano and cello), this is both sparse and in-your-face at the same time. Beautifully recorded in Milano in march, 1968 (lots of atmosphere that perfectly matches that dark, mysterious cover art).

Confluence was originally released in Europe and later in the US with a different sleeve design from the one shown above. It was reissued later and renamed Hamba Khale! which translates to ‘Farewell’ (to the dead) literally “go Well” in Xhosa language. Pretty, Frantic, Thoughtful and energetic all at once. A sweet little Jazz record that while it takes work from the listener,  is well worth the time.

If you find it, buy this album!