Photographs from the South African jazz scene, documented by map maker Ian Bruce Huntley in the 60s and 70s in a recently published book.
Ian Bruce Huntley worked as a map maker and spent a decade in the mid 60s and 70s documenting the Cape Town Jazz scene from within. The images here are restored from Huntley's negatives by fellow South African photographer Cedric Nunn.
The book contains many forgotten players who never made a name for themselves outside South Africa, alongside figures including Louis Moholo-Moholo, Chris McGregor and Abdullah Ibrahim. Many of the scene's key figures hardly recorded commercially at all, and the surviving discography is extremely rare. As such, Huntely's sound recordings effectively revolutionise the historical understanding of jazz in South Africa during this period, revealing that South African jazz players engaged more heavily with the American jazz tradition than was previously thought. 56 hours of sound recordings will be uploaded next year.
Keeping Time 1964–1974: The Photographs And Cape Town Jazz Recordings Of Ian Bruce Huntley is published by Electric Jive, and is featured in The Wire 359.
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