The Blue Notes were a South African jazz sextet, whose definitive line-up featured Chris McGregor on piano,

Mongezi Feza Mongezi Feza (11 May 1945 – 14 December 1975) was a South African jazz trumpeter and flautist. Biography Feza was born in Queenstown, Cape Province, Union of South Africa, into a family of musicians, His elder brother, Sandi Feza, who ...

on trumpet,

Dudu Pukwana Mthutuzeli Dudu Pukwana (18 July 1938 – 30 June 1990) was a South African saxophonist, composer and pianist (although not known for his piano playing). Early years in South Africa Dudu Pukwana was born in Walmer Township, Port Elizabeth, ...

on alto saxophone,

Nikele Moyake Nikele (Nik) Moyake (c. 1933 – c. 1966) was born on a farm in Addo in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. He was a musician who played mbaqanga and jazz. Music career In the early 1950s Moyake moved to Port Elizabeth where he was a key fig ...

on tenor saxophone,

Johnny Dyani Johnny Mbizo Dyani (30 November 1945 – 24 October 1986) was a South African jazz double bassist, vocalist and pianist, who, in addition to being a key member of The Blue Notes, played with such international musicians as Don Cherry, Steve L ...

on bass, and Louis Moholo-Moholo on drums. After moving away from their home country in 1964, they established themselves on the European jazz circuit, where they continued to play and record through the 1970s. They are now considered one of the great

free jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...

bands of their era, whose music was given a unique flavour by their integration of African styles such as

Kwela Kwela is a pennywhistle-based street music from southern Africa with jazzy underpinnings and a distinctive, skiffle-like beat. It evolved from the marabi sound and brought South African music to international prominence in the 1950s. The music h ...

into the progressive jazz ideas of the time.

Early days

Although the band was initially based in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

(five of the group's six members came from the Eastern Cape), they came to prominence at the 1963 National Jazz Festival in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

. An album recorded after the festival was released as ''Jazz – The African Sound'', but this was not a Blue Notes record ''per se'', it was rather an album featuring some of the Blue Notes in a big band put together by McGregor. This big band was intended to continue touring, but proved unworkable. Instead, The Blue Notes continued as a quintet, then sextet. Remaining in Johannesburg, they established a residency at the city's ''Downbeat'' club, but returned to Cape Town to make their first studio recordings for the

South African Broadcasting Corporation The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's state ...

. These recordings were finally released in 2002 by the Proper Music label, on a CD entitled ''Township Bop''. It showed the band to be playing in a relatively straight ahead bebop style compared with their later work, also tracing the coming together of the definitive sextet. On the earliest sessions, only three members of the definitive line up (McGregor, Pukwana and Moyake) were present. By the time of the last sessions, Feza, Dyani and Moholo were on board. Like fellow South African jazz musicians

Dollar Brand Abdullah Ibrahim (born Adolph Johannes Brand on 9 October 1934 and formerly known as Dollar Brand) is a South African pianist and composer. His music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cap ...

and

Hugh Masekela Hugh Ramapolo Masekela (4 April 1939 – 23 January 2018) was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for ...

, they understood that the only way they could play freely was by escaping the oppressive social and political climate of their home country. As a mixed-race band (McGregor the sole white member), they were especially prone to police harassment. In mid-1964, they left South Africa.

In Europe

After an appearance at the 1964 Antibes Jazz Festival in France, the group decided stay in Europe. They spent some additional time in France before taking up club residencies in Zurich and

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, Switzerland for nearly a year. In April 1965, they played a short residency at

Ronnie Scott Ronnie may refer to: * Ronnie (name), a unisex pet name and given name * "Ronnie" (Four Seasons song), a song by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe *"Ronnie," a song from the Metallica album '' Load'' *Ronnie Brunswijkstadion, an association football stadiu ...

's Club in London, and decided to stay on in Britain. Unfortunately, their arrival coincided with a downturn in the fortunes of jazz in the UK, as recording and gigging opportunities began drying up. There is also the suspicion that they were deliberately frozen out of the British scene by established local musicians, who considered them interlopers. There soon followed a period playing in Copenhagen, Denmark which McGregor identified as a turning point in their musical approach. They returned to London and were subsequently to be found playing almost exclusively at The Old Place in Gerrard Street, the former home of

Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club is a jazz club that has operated in Soho, London, since 1959. History The club opened on 30 October 1959 in a basement at 39 Gerrard Street in London's Soho district. It was set up and managed by musicians Ronnie Sc ...

which had recently been transformed into a virtual laboratory for the emerging British avant garde jazz scene. Because of this, they are still considered a seminal influence on the new generation of British jazz musicians coming through in the late 1960s. Artists such as

Keith Tippett Keith Graham Tippetts (25 August 1947 – 14 June 2020), known professionally as Keith Tippett, was a British jazz pianist and composer. According to AllMusic, Tippett's career "..spanned jazz-rock, progressive rock, improvised and contemporary ...

Evan Parker Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation. Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free ja ...

, John Stevens and

John Surman John Douglas Surman (born 30 August 1944) is an English jazz saxophone, bass clarinet, and synthesizer player, and composer of free jazz and modal jazz, often using themes from folk music. He has composed and performed music for dance performanc ...

have long hailed them as true pioneers and a massive influence. However, by late 1965 the group was also beginning to fragment. Feza returned to Copenhagen, while Dyani and Moholo-Moholo went on a South American tour with the soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy – subsequently recording the album ''The Forest and the Zoo'' for the

ESP-Disk ESP-Disk is a New York-based record company and label founded in 1963 by lawyer Bernard Stollman. History Though it originally existed to release Esperanto-based music, beginning with its second release (Albert Ayler's ''Spiritual Unity''), ESP ...

label. Meanwhile, Moyake had decided to return to South Africa permanently even before their arrival in the UK. The first recording opportunity for the Blue Notes came about in 1968 for the

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States ...

label, produced by

Joe Boyd Joe Boyd (born August 5, 1942) is an American record producer and writer. He formerly owned Hannibal Records. Boyd has worked on recordings of Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, The Incredible String Ba ...

. However, the resulting album, ''Very Urgent'', was actually credited to "The Chris McGregor Group". Despite the pianist's star billing, this was very much a Blue Notes album with all the other members back in London and contributing. Compared to the 1964 South African recordings, this album demonstrated the growth of their

leanings. Another recording was made for Polydor the same year, but was not released until 2008 (''Up To Earth'' – Fledg'ling FLED 3069). Various combinations of the group recorded for the Ogun label subsequently. Around this time, McGregor began his Brotherhood of Breath big band project. This band, which essentially grew from the addition of British musicians to the core Blue Notes line up, would come to full fruition in the early 1970s. While Brotherhood of Breath essentially succeeded The Blue Notes, the old name was used on various projects during the 1970s. In the early 1970s, Pukwana, Feza and Moholo were also members of the afro-rock band

Assagai Assagai was an Afro-rock band, active in the early 1970s in London, whose relatively short career produced two albums recorded in 1971. It has been described as "the second best-known African group of the late 60s/early 70s in Britain" after Osi ...

After The Blue Notes

returned to South Africa in 1965. He died of a brain tumour a year later. His place in The Blue Notes was eventually taken by another South African, Ronnie Beer, who played on the ''Very Urgent'' session.

played with Robert Wyatt,

Elton Dean Elton Dean (28 October 1945 – 8 February 2006) was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello (a variant of the soprano saxophone) and occasionally keyboards. Part of the Canterbury scene, he featured in, among ot ...

and

Henry Cow Henry Cow were an English experimental rock group, founded at the University of Cambridge in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler, b ...

among others, before his death in 1975 aged only 30. The other Blue Notes then regrouped to record ''Blue Notes For Mongezi'' as a tribute, on

Ogun Records Ogun Records is a jazz record label created in London in 1973 by South African expatriate bassist Harry Miller, his wife Hazel Miller, and sound engineer Keith Beal. They recorded British avant-garde jazz musicians Keith Tippett, Mike Osborn ...

moved to Denmark in the early 1970s, where he continued to play and record extensively with a number of great musicians, including

Don Cherry Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five se ...

and Mal Waldron. Dyani died in 1986, prompting another reunion of the surviving Blue Notes to record ''Blue Notes For Johnny''. Chris McGregor kept his Brotherhood of Breath going in various forms until his death in 1990. He had been a resident of France since the early 1970s.

continued to make records in Britain, both under his own leadership and with McGregor. Pukwana died in 1990, only a month after McGregor. Of the definitive line-up, only Louis Moholo-Moholo is still alive. He has participated in a huge number of recordings with such musicians as Cecil Taylor,

and

Stan Tracey Stanley William Tracey (30 December 1926 – 6 December 2013) was a British jazz pianist and composer, whose most important influences were Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Tracey's best known recording is the 1965 album '' Jazz Suite Inspi ...

. He has now returned to live in South Africa, but continues to tour with different groups. He formed the Dedication Orchestra, a big band of all-star improvisors dedicated to playing the music of the South African exiles. On 21 September 2007, President

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki KStJ (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who was the second president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC ...

gave official recognition to the contribution of the Blue Notes to South African music by awarding the group the national

Order of Ikhamanga The Order of Ikhamanga is a South African honour. It was instituted on 30 November 2003 and is granted by the President of South Africa for achievements in arts, culture, literature, music, journalism, and sports (which were initially recognised b ...

in Silver. The citation for the award stated, in part: "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." Marcus Wyatt launched the Blue Notes Tribute Orkestra in 2017 to bring greater recognition to the music of The Blue Notes.

Discography

*''The Blue Notes Legacy: Live in South Africa'', Ogun OGCD 007 (1995, recorded 1964) *''Township Bop'', Proper PRPCD 013 (2002, recorded 1964) *''Very Urgent'' (as Chris McGregor Group), Polydor 184 137 (1968) *''Up To Earth'' (as Chris McGregor Group), Polydor 583 072 (1968), Fledg'ling FLED 3069 (2008) *''Blue Notes for Mongezi'', Ogun OGD 001/002 (1975) *''In Concert Vol. 1'', Ogun OG 220 (1978, recorded 1977) *''Before The Wind Changes'', Ogun OGCD 037 (2012, recorded 1979) *''Blue Notes for Johnny'', Ogun OG 532 (1987) *''Ogun Collection Of Recordings: Blue Notes For Mongezi/In Concert/Blue Notes For Johnny/Legacy: Live in South Afrika 1964'' -CD box set & booklet Ogun OGCD 024-028

References

External links