Free Jazz Experiments at Selwyn's Room (1966)

Selwyn Lissack - back in the day.
Picture by Ian Bruce Huntley

In a 1985 interview Sheila Wallis asks Winston Mankunku Ngozi about the mid 1960s: "Do you remember Selwyn Lissack? He said you used to have great jam sessions together at a house in Bantry Bay". Winston: "Ooh boy, we had a quartet, a beautiful group, those guys were really together. Selwyn on drums, Chris Schilder, Midge Pike, and at times with Merton Barrow. We would rehearse the whole night, play, play, play and play. We were doing the Art Centre then. I met a friend who was really into music - Ian Huntley. He had a lot of records, a photographer, a beautiful guy, he was in love with musicians. He bought me another saxophone."  (April 1985 edition of 'Think Jazz').

In talking to Selwyn Lissack this week, he emphasised the important and generous role played by Ian: "Ian, played a very important part in my comprehension of how to approach playing Jazz. I would go to Ian’s flat to listen to the tapes after a concert. They say the tapes never lie and this was a perfect way to learn and understand the music of that time." (see below for more).

Another gift that Ian gave to us all was to keep and preserve these recordings and share them with us now. In this previously unreleased fascinating ninety-minute experimental session Chris Schilder and Selwyn Lissack stand-out most often in their technically tight exploratory forays. Winston Manunku delights and surprises more in the second half.

 

In listening for the first time I had the experience of being seized in recognising snippets of music, and then being taken for a compelling diversionary ride, gripped in waiting to hear what comes next, and then occasionlly being brought back to familiar territory that I could not quite identify. The more I listen to these recordings the more I get to know and appreciate them as a product of talented jazz musicians at the top of their game.

 

Selwyn Lissack left South Africa in 1966, not long after these recordings were made. In 1969 after a three-year sojourn in England he recorded his only album as leader: "Friendship Next of Kin" with Mongezi Feza (trumpet), Harry Miller (bass), Mike Osborn (alto sax), Kenneth Terroade (tenor sax), Earl Freeman (bass and piano), and Louis Moholo (additional percussion). After contributing to another ground-breaking free jazz album in 1970, Lissack quit music, disgusted at feeling ripped off. Read more here. Lissack re-mastered and re-issued "Friendship Next of Kin" in 2006 - look out for it, it is becoming difficult to find again. It is not for nothing that Lissack was rated in a list of a top ten from the free jazz underground.

 

Ever pushing boundaries Lissack teamed up in a five-year collaborative relationship with Salvador Dali in the 1970s to produce ten holographic works of art. Watch a video of Lissack describing what they did here. Visit Selwyn Lissack's own website here.

 

Very close friends at the time, Selwyn and Ian recently re-connected via telephone - Selwyn in Tucson, Arizona, and Ian in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. I invited Selwyn to share a few words on his recollections of those times.

"In the early 1950’s it was not yet possible, to pursue a Jazz musical career, through the local school curriculum, in South Africa. Some schools could teach the basic classical fundamentals of music. It was difficult to find a teacher who enjoyed and under-stood the intricacy of Jazz music.

"Another set back was, as I had chosen the drums as an instrument, it was nearly impossible to find a space to practice, in a suburban area.

"In order to play without disturbing anyone, I would rent an office space in the city of Cape Town and soundproof the walls and ceiling. After some years of this activity, I was able to find a garage close to my home, where many, many hours were spent in the pursuit of learning how to play, Jazz music.   

 

"Chris, Midge and Winston would usually come to ‘Selwyn’s room’ to rehearse, for the Sunday concerts at the Art Center on the Green Point common. It was at this venue that Ian Huntley recorded a lot of the music that has been preserved to this day.

"Ian, played a very important part in my comprehension of how to approach playing Jazz. I would go to Ian’s flat, to listen to the tapes, after a concert. They say the tapes never lie and this was a perfect way to learn and understand the music of that time.  

 

"I had a choice selection of the best east-coast jazz musicians, to study and learn from.

"Learning to play perfect straight ahead time was hard enough but my ultimate goal was to find a different and original approach to playing time. Like a pulse. This was eventually was achieved, in future recordings, 'Friendship Next of Kin' and the 'Sun Is Coming Up.'

"All the time that was dedicated to ‘Selwyn's Room’ and other urban  recordings, is an important historical documentation, of the legacy of Ian’s love and devotion to the jazz world and the musicians of Cape Town.

"

I would like to thank him, for always being there to catch the moment, making it possible for me to advance and perfect my concept of playing Jazz."

Ian is hoping to make contact with Chris Schilder (Ebrahim Kalil Shihab) again too. In searching the web, I did manage to find this March 2012 video clip of the master still at work! He released a solo piano CD in 2010 and it appears to be already sold out. It is possible download it from itunes here and Amazon here, and for a very reasonable price from Look and Listen here.

 

Experiments At Selwyn's Room - Part One

Rapidshare here

Zippyshare here

 

If you have not yet listened to the earlier postings from Ian’s archive, you can find them here:

1. Winston Mankunku gem 

2. Love for Free: Hidden South African Jazz Archive revealed

3. The Blue Notes: A Journey of Faith

4. Chris McGregor Quintet Live in Geneva

5. Becoming Free In Cape Town

6. Last Night at the Room At The Top: Dyani and Pukwana

7. Kippie Moeketsi: The album he never made

8. Mankunku and Goldberg Go Free In Cape Town

Mankunku and Goldberg Go Free in Cape Town



Morris Goldberg, Chris Schilder and Midge Pike at the Art Centre, Cape Town  (1966).
Pic by Ian Bruce Huntley

Best wishes to you from us here at Electric Jive for 2013. Before sharing another previously unheard gem from the Ian Bruce Huntley jazz archive, an update on Electric Jive for the year ahead.
 

When comparing burn-out symptoms at the end of 2012, the four of us who run this blog agreed that something had to change. In addition to our own working lives we have other voluntary projects besides Electric Jive that we are also committed to. So, we plan to slow down and publish less frequently this year. We are also more likely to mix up the post format, length, and content. Each contributor will have a two-week slot in which at least one post will be shared. Sometimes we may post more often within that two-week slot than in other times. All of us are committed to keeping this blog going for as long as our energies enable us to.

We kick of this year with an eighth instalment from the Ian Huntley Jazz archive. Ian has often pointed out to me that ‘free jazz’ was a lot more popular amongst South Africa’s 1960s jazz musicians than we realise.

My friend Max Annas reckons that much of the written history of jazz in South Africa has been shaped largely by the evidence of relatively few studio recordings. He agrees with Ian in pointing out that the narrative of jazz history in South Africa has little to say of the enthusiastic embrace by  important musicians of the Free Jazz movement.

There is still quite a bit of ‘free jazz’ to share from Ian’s archive, including a number of private sessions of “Experiments in Selwyn’s Garage”, with Winston Mankunku Ngozi and Chris Schilder  mixing their own musical chemistry. There are also a number of sessions at the Art Centre in particular which are most certainly ‘free’ in character. Perhaps Cape Town audiences were more receptive and just as enthusiastic in wanting to break with convention at that time? 

Today’s session was recorded at The Art Centre on 20^th August 1966. While a bop idiom provides  lyrical foundation, and there is a meter that keeps the likes of me interested, huge spaces are created for the musicians to express their own voice in the moment. The opening track “Free Thing” features fairly frequently on Ian’s tapes. The second track “Ole” is the Coltrane composition that featured on the introductory post to this archive. The outstanding third track “Poor” was previously unknown to me and showcases Mankunku and Goldberg taking their instruments to new places. Does anyone recognise "Poor"? Can you tell us more about it?

 In addition to having Morris Goldberg and Winston Mankunku Ngozi to hand on saxophones, there is a double-up in having Midge Pike and Philly Schilder on double-bass. Chris Schilder’s brilliance shines through on piano, while Selwyn Lissack's drumming is clearly happy ‘out there’ in the experiment.

Please – if any of you has anything you could add by way of information or have a reaction to this music, we would very much welcome a few words in the comments section below.

 

Mankunku and Goldberg Go Free in Cape Town

Zippyshare here

Rapidshare here

 

If you have not yet listened to the earlier postings from Ian’s archive, you can find them here:

1. Winston Mankunku gem

2. Love for Free: Hidden South African Jazz Archive revealed

 

3. The Blue Notes: A Journey of Faith

4. Chris McGregor Quintet Live in Geneva

5. Becoming Free In Cape Town

6. Last Night at the Room At The Top: Dyani and Pukwana

7. Kippie Moeketsi: The album he never made

Dyani and Pukwana’s last South Africa gig

 

Max Dayimani - This picture taken by Ian Bruce Huntley
at the Langa Stadium in 1972

This previously unreleased recording marks the very last time that Johnny Dyani and Dudu Pukwana performed in South Africa, days before going into exile with Chris McGregor and the Blue Notes via the Antibes Jazz Festival in July 1964. Captured at “The Room At The Top” in Cape Town by Ian Bruce Huntley, this live gig represents a poignant last union and “point of fracture” from which six very talented artists struck out to seek their respective musical fortunes.

I am hopeful that those jazz enthusiasts among you might want to share your thoughts on the arrangements and interpretation of these four tracks spanning just over seventy minutes. For all these musicians July 1964 in Cape Town was a big turning point, for some, a leap into unknown fragmented futures scattered across the globe. I cannot hear this music without this uncertain emergent context in mind. Read Tony McGregor describing the ‘journey of faith’ here.

 

On the opening track of the concert Ronnie Beer’s tenor sax leads into Dizzy Gillespie’s ‘Night in Tunisia’ with a strong upbeat performance. The introduction of Dennis Mpale’s trumpet in the fifth minute shakes it all up, setting the scene for a vibrant evening of musical conversations pivoting around the swinging Johnny Dyani bass and tight drumming from Max Dayimani, punctuated by Tete Mbambisa’s bubbling piano.

 

Before Dudu Pukwana joins in for the last two tracks, Ronnie Beer further demonstrates his class with the band rendering his own upbeat composition, ‘Immediately’. Bra Tete does his own bit of vocal scatting following his fingers in joyful moments of letting go.

The towering Dudu Pukwana summonses attention in the opening of ‘Green Dolphin Street’,(thanks Jonathan for the correction) before the conversation meanders comfortably along, providing spaces for exploratory solos. It is an historical sadness that a beautiful Pukwana solo is abruptly interrupted for what was the end of one side of Ian’s reel-to-reel tape.

Each listening of Dudu Pukwana’s plaintive alto sax on the essentially gloomy final track, “Close Your Eyes” sparks my own imagining of emotional turmoil and uncertainty. Introduced by Dennis Mpale on trumpet over an ever-swinging Dyani-Dayimani rhythm, and preceded by Ronnie Beer on tenor sax, Pukwana enters in the seventh minute in muted protest, which unwinds over ten minutes of exquisite contemplation. But then, approaching seventeen minutes in, the ever playful Tete Mbambisa (piano) starts to swing with Dyani and Dayimani, letting out yelps and whoops of appreciation in the music’s moment. Following a brief Dyani solo, Ronnie Beer interjects on tenor sax in the 21^st minute to ‘hayibo’ shouts of appreciation, followed by Dennis Mpale’s uplifting trumpet. Somehow, after that Pukwana’s final and brief closing re-entry sounds more resolute.

 

All the recordings by Ian Bruce Huntley were made with the explicit support and permission of the band members recorded. Ian has agreed to Electric Jive sharing these recordings freely on a non-commercial basis as a means of honouring the musicians and ensuring that this important legacy does not become lost.

 

There are four earlier postings from Ian Huntley's jazz archive on Electric Jive - if you have not yet downloaded them, follow these links:

Winston Mankunku gem

Love for Free: Hidden South African Jazz Archive revealed

The Blue Notes: A Journey of Faith

Becoming Free In Cape Town

LAST NIGHT AT THE ROOM AT THE TOP (1964)

Johnny Dyani - Bass; Dudu Pukwana - Alto Saxophone (tracks three and four only); Ronnie Beer - Tenor Saxophone; Dennis Mpale - Trumpet; Tete Mbambisa - Piano; Max Dayimani - Drums

1. Night In Tunisia – Dizzy Gillespie (15:21)

2. Immediately – Ronnie Beer (15:46)

3. Green Dolphin Street (16:01)

4. Close Your Eyes – Bernice Patkere (23:55)

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Mediafire download here