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Gallery: Cape Town Jazz 1964–1974

December 2013

Winston Mankunku Ngozi. Troubadour Restaurant, Cape Town, 1966.

Psych Big T Ntsele. New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, 1971.

Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) and Chris McGregor, New Brighton Stadium, Port Elizabeth, 1971.

Troubadour Restaurant, Cape Town, 1966. Maurice Gawronsky (drums), Bob Tizzard (bass), Morris Goldberg (alto), Winston Mankunku Ngozi (tenor sax), Chris Schilder (Ebrahim Kalil Shihab), obscured (piano).

Christopher Columbus Ngcukana, Langa Stadium, Cape Town, 1972.

Langa Town Hall, Cape Town, 1972. Louis Moholo-Moholo (drums) and Gus Ntlokwana (bass).

Tete Mbambisa (piano) and Psych Big T Ntsele (bass). Salt River Town Hall, Cape Town, 1965.

Sathima Bea Benjamin, Space Theatre, Long Street, Cape Town, 1974.

Former Blue Note member Nick Moyake at Dorkay House, Johannesburg, 1965, shortly before his untimely death.

Seated front row: Tex Kulati (trumpet). Second row: (l-r) unidentified, unidentified, Tete Mbambisa, Duku Makasi. Third row: Danayi Dlova, Mzonke Hobongwana, Duke Ngcukana (with children), Fats Mbambisa. Fourth row: two unidentified female friends, Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand). Back row: unidentified. Langa Stadium, 1972.

(L-R) Danayi Dlova, Duke Ngcukana, Cups Nkanuka. Langa Stadium, Cape Town, 1972

Still “Dollar Brand” at the time – slipping in from exile for a visit home: Abdullah Ibrahim. New Brighton Stadium, Port Elizabeth 1971.

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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