African

While not a universally praised piece of the Art Blakey discography, The African Beat is quite engaging. Yusef Lateef is the only horn player, featured on oboe, flute, tenor sax, cow horn, and thumb piano with Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass, but trombonist Curtis Fuller is only heard playing tympani – it was that kind of session. The drum ensemble includes Chief Bey, along with five other percussionists on conboro, log, and bata drums with penny whistles, gongs, congas, and African maracas. This is reminiscent of Lateef's more exotic sessions from the same time period, but quite unlike other Blue Note releases from the early '60s.

Sometimes a musical message is so urgent that questions of recording quality are almost beside the point. Informally recorded in 1969 in a noisy club – Copenhagen’s famous Jazzhus Montmartre – the flavour of this album is ‘documentary’ rather than luxuriantly hi-fidelity, yet the essence of Abdullah Ibrahim’s communication comes through loud and clear. The listener is drawn into the robust rhythms of his solo piano style, as he re-examines the history of jazz from a South African perspective, with echoes of songs of the townships, and vamps that hint of Monk and Duke and much more. African Piano was a highly influential album, and it has lost none of its power.As part of the Re:solutions series this historical title has been mastered from original analog sources and reissued in January 2014.

Nottingham-based Senegalese composer and kora player Seckou Keita is proud to present African Rhapsodies: an epic project created in collaboration with Italian composer and musician Davide Mantovani, released via Swiss label Claves Records. African Rhapsodies is an enchanting, kora-led work, enhanced by the power of the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Relatively unaware from the rest of the planet, South Africa apparently had their own rock scene in which a few groups evolved in the scope of ProgArchives, the first being Freedom Children and here, Hawk. Indeed the apartheid was an important factor running the country and the generally well-respected boycott made that a few artistes left the country (ie: Manfred Mann), but others remained and fought the Apartheid in their own manner. Whether Hawk really did so is anyone's guess, but the strong black African music sprinkled all over their music does give a hint they did. Hawk was a group that was apparently managed from afar by Lonstain, but the problems were numerous between artistes and producers.