Blue Notes The Ogun Collection

These Notes Are For You...
Ogun Collection
Blue Notes
Ogun
It’s difficult to overestimate the effect and impact that Chris McGregor (piano), Dudu Pukwana (saxes), Mongezi Feza (trumpet), Johnny Dyani (bass) and Louis Moholo had upon the progressive wing of the UK jazz scene when they arrived in 1965 from their native South Africa. Collectively known as the Blue Notes, this multi-racial group injected a fiery physicality that invigorated and excited those lucky enough to see and hear them in action. Something of that magic is presented in an extensive 5 CD box set beginning with a gig in South Africa in 1964 and ending in a moving tribute to a fallen collegue1987.

Live In South Afrika, captures a group clearly enthralled to the Monk / Silver traditions of American jazz. Light and airy (complete with an appealing high-ceiling ambience), though this clutch of original tunes by alto player Pukwana and McGregor are firmly in the bop tradition, there’s an edge to the playing that would only come to full power once they’d left their country and apartheid behind.

As exiles they set about making friends in Europe where Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath became a clearing house for some of the brightest jazz players in the country. From here the individual ex-Blue Notes fanned out, connecting to other territories and forms. McGregor vamps on Nick Drake’s Bryter Later whilst Feza’s shrill clarion blasts can be heard on Robert Wyatt’s Rock Bottom and Henry Cow’s In Praise of Learning.

Feza’s death from pneumonia was marked by a tribute in which Pukwana, McGregor, Moholo and Dyani laid down nearly 3hours of music. Originally released in 1976 in a highly edited version, this new edition of Blue Notes For Mongezi is fully restored across two CDs. Sadly this freewheeling frequently joyous and intense performance is marred by a sub-standard piano that struggles to stay in tune at the top end.

Blue Notes In Concert originally released in 1978 (now expanded with previously unreleased material) has the band at their blistering best, indulging in extended bursts of free jazz rough and tumble. McGregor’s agitated pin-sharp clusters of notes provide a deeply detailed foil to Pukwana’s often brutal rasping attacks. As far away from the original group as it’s possible to be, there’s nevertheless continuity in their good-humoured approach. As on the other discs, Moholo’s fast-moving work on kit, cymbals and sundry percussion is the thing that often steals the show.

The final disc, Blue Notes For Johnny, is an extended valedictory song to Dyani. This is a beautiful recording with Pukwana’s soaring tones (often multi-tracked) taking the lead as chief mourner, articulating the connection between the jubilant traditional South African folk tunes and the cathartic release which jazz is so often associated with.

The deaths of Nick Moyake in 1966, the passing of Feza in 1975, Dyani in 1986, and then McGregor and Pukwana in 1990 leaves Moholo as sole survivor of this legendary outfit. These CDs (plus 20 page booklet) is a splendid memorial to their individual and collective talents. Stunning.