The protest song “Malcolm’s gone” not only pays tribute to one of the most influential black leaders, but provocatively likens him, as a Muslim and so-called enemy of the state, to Jesus Christ.
When they arrived in Europe in the early 1960s, South African jazz outfit the Blue Notes revolutionised the London scene. Half a century later, their music is coming home in several new projects.
Two of South Africa’s finest musicians, Johnny Mekoa and Ray Phiri, died recently. The permeable terrain between genres their careers negotiated, is being replaced by rigid marketing categories.
Women are disturbingly under-represented in Australian jazz, with relatively few female composers and instrumentalists. What’s holding them back? And what can be done about it?
Just as Fitzgerald’s career was taking off, jazz was under attack for its purported connection to drug culture. If she wanted to become a mainstream superstar, she needed to make a choice.
Something really magical is happening at the intersection between jazz and hip-hop at the moment. Many of the artists involved will be playing at Africa’s foremost jazz festival.