Although not jazz, I imagine that some on this bored would enjoy the playing of Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew Mekurya who died recently aged 81.
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Originally posted by Jazzrook View Post
Jazzrook
Thanks for bringing the musician to the attention. I have never heard of him, I'm afraid.
Looking him up, it appears that he came to the same kind of approach to Free Jazz playing entirely independently and without being aware of the kind of jazz the evolved in the US during the mid 1960s. I have played a few clips of his music and I got the impression that he was a bit removed from jazz even though he fitted in with the jazz-rock group that it also on YouTube. It is a bit like Orchestra Boabob who are clearly influenced by big band jazz but place something that is fundamentally different.
I find the mixture of jazz and African music to be really mixed. Of all the musicians, Abdullah Ibrahim always impressed me most but 30-odd years since I first discovered his music, it is really apparent nowadays just how mainstream is was and is. He may have been associated with more adventurous stuff in the early70's but he always seems to me someone soaked in Ellingtonia which, in my book, is a really good thing. There are other African "jazz" artists who have baffled. Hugh Masakela seems too much like Smooth Jazz and the likes of Manu Dibango are great fun but perhaps more suitably billed as funk. I saw Dibango several years ago and he was ok - perfectly listenable but not a master like Shorter, Rollins, Lovano, Brecker, etc, etc.
Other than Ibrahim, I think that Brotherhood of Breath were great if a bit ragged. You have to be careful with their output as the last incarnation on Virgin in the late 1980's was pretty dreadful and underwhelming. I caught a French group at Vienne called "Le Marmite infernal" who followed in McGregor's wake and they were terrific but the whole South African jazz influence seems to have more of an affinity than any other parts of Africa.
The curious thing for me is the mixture of West and North African musician who employ Koras in a jazz context. It doesn't really work for me as the kora players just tend to play the same licks. They don't really grasp jazz and the whole harmonic concept of jazz sophistication versus non-chromatic koras makes the jazz suffer. However, I have heard it work really well with blues musicians such as Taj Mahal where the collaboration was amazingly successful. By and large, African artists are generally better left to do there own thing. Salif Keita is one of the best live acts around and Angelique Kidjo is easily one of my favourite singers. I have loads of her stuff. Another singer, Fatoumata Diawara is brilliant and was pretty food with Cuban pianist Robert Fonseca.
I quite like African music but you need to be careful and there is a trade off with the harmonic language they employ or the overuse of one chord themes. #This is why someone like Kidjo is on the money as she blends African melodies and grooves with jazz savvy arrangements. Angelique Kidjo doesn't get enough cred from jazz fans, in my opinion but I am highly biased in this respect!
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