NOVEMBER 2019: 40th-anniversary deluxe vinyl repressing of Tete Mbambisa’s Did You Tell Your Mother of 1979 under the creative direction of Eating Standing Records in Italy. Hargreaves Ntukwana’s original ink drawing was revisited to carefully reproduce the album’s iconic cover, which replicates the SRK 786148 first pressing and honours producer Rashid Vally’s minimalist vision. We reached even deeper into the As-Shams Archive to add a rare Hargreaves Ntukwana printed insert advertising the Kohinoor Store, the Johannesburg jazz hub where the album was originally distributed.
Piano – Tete Mbambisa
Tenor Saxophone / Flute – Basil Coetzee
Bass – Zulu Bidi
Drums – Monty Weber
Composed by Tete Mbambisa
Album Artwork by Hargreaves Ntukwana
Produced by Rashid Vally
Tenor Saxophone / Flute – Basil Coetzee
Bass – Zulu Bidi
Drums – Monty Weber
Composed by Tete Mbambisa
Album Artwork by Hargreaves Ntukwana
Produced by Rashid Vally
Cat. No. SRK 786148
℗ 1979 © 2019 As-Shams/The Sun
"The sound that Tete Mbambisa carved in this period was wholly acoustic and is a style that now is often loosely labelled spiritual jazz, a sound that alludes to deep African textures and rhythms balanced with clear nods to American hard bop and modal jazz, sometimes edging toward free improvisation with echoes of John Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders. The music is often centred around a fulcrum of trance-like vamps with repeated motifs that allow for extended pieces that create a hypnotic effect. The tracks here are warm, expansive and display a wonderful fluency with Mbambisa's piano subtly weaving throughout, leaving plenty of space for the band: Zulu Bidi on bass, Monty Webb on drums and saxophonist/flautist Basil Coetzee." – Tony Higgins (for Eating Standing Records)
Tete Mbambisa performing at the University of Cape Town in 2012
(Photo: Calum MacNaughton)
