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Drum legend's brilliance beats out revolutionary rhythms of Africa
Ageless: Louis Moholo-Moholo
[Andy Newcombe/Creative Commons]
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Louis Moholo-Moholo
Cafe Oto, London
LOUIS MOHOLO-MOHOLO'S incendiary and subtle Cape Town drums have been awakening London since the arrival of the Blue Notes from apartheid-cursed South Africa in 1965. They fuelled the anti-apartheid movement and brought entirely new and free African melodies, rhythms and forms to the heart of European jazz.
Now 78, he comes to Cafe Oto with musicians two generations younger — Caribbean-rooted saxophonist Jason Yarde, rampaging Hounslow bassist John Edwards and Oxford pianist Alex Hawkins.
Their opener, an astonishing adaptation of Dikeledi Tsa Phelo by South African pianist Pule Pheto lasts an hour, with the foursome voyaging in and out of the tune through explosive and ever-inventive improvisation, township riffs, hymnal reflections, snatches of themes by Chris McGregor and Abdullah Ibrahim and an evocative chorus of the anthem Nkosi Sikeleli Afrika.
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