As-Shams/The Sun Records: 1979

Showing posts with label 1979. Show all posts

TETE MBAMBISA - Did You Tell Your Mother

APRIL 2026: Released in 1979, Tete Mbambisa's Did You Tell Your Mother delivers the ultimate blend of African groove with American modal grace, making it one of the all-time classic albums of South African jazz. With Mbambisa presenting original compositions at the piano alongside Basil "Mannenberg" Coetzee on tenor sax and flute, the acoustic quartet featured here is rounded out by Zulu Bidi from the band Batsumi on bass locking in with Dollar Brand drummer Monty Weber. 2026 vinyl reissue from As-Shams Archive presents a flat transfer of the master tapes with album artwork restored using illustrator Hargreaves Ntukwana's original ink drawing.

A1. Trane Ride 11:21

A2. Past Time 09:28

B1. Wintertime 08:05

B2. Irene 09:34

DIGITAL ALBUM

All Tracks Composed by Tete Mbambisa

Piano – Tete Mbambisa

Tenor Saxophone & Flute – Basil Coetzee

Bass – Zulu Bidi

Drums – Monty Weber

Produced by Rashid Vally

Album Artwork by Hargreaves Ntukwana

Cat. No. ML 4258

MOVEMENT IN THE CITY - Movement in the City 3

As-Shams Archive Vol. 6: Movement in the City - Movement in the City 3

Transitioning from Black Disco through Movement in the City to releasing albums as a solo artist, Pops Mohamed's 20-year trajectory through the As-Shams catalogue is second to none. Coming in the wake of the Black Disco compilation Discovery 1975-1976, Movement in the City 3 is an archival release that spans the late-70s and early-80s and assembles hidden gems from Mohamed's second progressive South African jazz ensemble.

Featuring four outtakes (three of which are previously unreleased) as well as an alternate version of a track from the band's self-titled debut of 1979 and a single edit from its 1981 follow-up Black Teardrops, Movement in the City 3 provides the long-awaited final instalment of a trilogy that echoes the three-album output of Black Disco. Alongside Mohamed on organ are stalwart compatriots Sipho Gumede (bass) and Basil Coetzee (tenor sax/flute) as well as Robbie Jansen (alto sax) and three fine drummers by way of Gilbert Matthews, Roger Harry and Monty Weber. That these extraordinary recordings didn't find their way onto an album in the 1980s is testament to the depth of quality produced at the time.

Movement in the City 3 is Volume 6 in a series of compilations and previously unreleased recordings from As-Shams Archive that include Tete Mbambisa's African Day (2024) and Kippie Moeketsi's Hard Top (2025).

1. Can't Think 08:20

2. Philly Sound 05:21

3. Jackie (Flute Version) 05:07

4. Eventide (Happy Feelin') 08:30

5. Monty's Groove 03:32

6. Lament (Single Version) 06:18

DIGITAL ALBUM

Tracks 1, 2, 5: Previously unreleased Movement in the City outtakes.

Track 3: An alternate version of "Jackie" featuring Basil Coetzee on flute instead of tenor sax from Movement in the City's self-titled debut of 1979.

Track 4: Movement in the City outtake renamed and issued as "Happy Feelin'" on the Pops Mohamed album Kalamazoo in 1990.

Track 6: Single edit issued in 2020 of the album opener "Lament" from Movement in the City's 1981 album Black Teardrops.

TRACKS 1, 3:

Organ – Pops Mohamed

Flute – Basil Coetzee

Bass – Sipho Gumede

Drums – Gilbert Matthews

TRACKS 2, 4, 6:

Organ, Fender Rhodes, Synth – Pops Mohamed

Tenor Sax, Flute – Basil Coetzee

Alto Sax – Robbie Jansen

Bass – Sipho Gumede

Drums – Roger Harry

TRACK 5:

Organ – Pops Mohamed

Tenor Sax – Basil Coetzee

Bass – Sipho Gumede

Drums – Monty Weber

All Tracks Composed by Pops Mohamed

Sessions Produced by Rashid Vally

Tape Transfers by Rob Allingham

Remastered by Richard Vossgatter

Design and Layout by Ash Pederick

Compiled & Produced by Calum MacNaughton

(with direction from Pops Mohamed)

Cat. No. ASA106

The PILLAY-COETZEE Trilogy

Three As-Shams albums from the late-70s that trace the interweaving discographies of pianist Lionel Pillay and tenor saxophonist Basil Coetzee. The connection between these three titles is tight as the 1987 release Shrimp Boats compiled unreleased recordings from both the 1979 session for Plum and Cherry and the 1980 session for Deeper in Black. Shrimp Boats and Plum and Cherry capture the extraordinary musical chemistry that existed between Pillay and Coetzee during this era. Deeper in Black is Pillay's nod to American trumpeter Blue Mitchell, who toured and recorded in South Africa in 1976. Restored, remastered and reissued in partnership with We Are Busy Bodies.

LIONEL PILLAY feat. BASIL COETZEE - Plum and Cherry

Following the April 2022 reissue of the album Shrimp Boats, We Are Busy Bodies presents companion titles Plum and Cherry and Deeper in Black to round out a Lionel Pillay and Basil Mannenberg Coetzee “trilogy” as part of the label’s As-Shams South African jazz archive series. The connection between these three albums is tight as the 1987 release Shrimp Boats compiled unreleased recordings from both the 1979 session for Plum and Cherry and the 1980 session for Deeper in Black. These two rare records have been carefully remastered from their original tapes and are back in print for the very first time in over 40 years.

Shrimp Boats and Plum and Cherry capture the extraordinary musical chemistry that existed between pianist Lionel Pillay and tenor saxophonist Basil Coetzee in the late 1970s. The respective album showpieces “Shrimp Boats” and “Cherry” each occupy an entire side of vinyl with both exquisite musical journeys clocking in at an epic 25 minutes a piece. While “Shrimp Boats” was an instrumental reimagining of the popular 1951 song by American singer Jo Stafford, “Cherry” drew inspiration from Abdullah Ibrahim at the behest of producer Rashid Vally, who wanted to emulate the success of the famous track that had helped launch his independent As-Shams/The Sun record label in 1974. Ibrahim’s hit “Mannenberg” had also featured Basil Coetzee and it was this zeitgeist South African jazz recording that had given rise to his stage name.

Capturing the grace and vitality of working-class township life on the city fringe, “Cherry” channels the type of laid-back Cape groove that Abdullah Ibrahim, recording as Dollar Brand, introduced to South African jazz in the 1970s. On the flip side, “Plum” appears to take its own simple chord change in the same direction before breaking into a chugging 20-minute romp that verges on proto-electronica and on which Pillay hangs all manner of savage keyboard riffing and experimentation. The two distinct flavours of Plum and Cherry make for a well-rounded platter with an iconic cover featuring the work of abstract expressionist painter and As-Shams/The Sun collaborator Hargreaves Ntukwana.

Lionel Pillay – Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, Other Keyboards

Basil Coetzee – Tenor Sax on “Cherry”

Rod Clark – Drums, Percussion

Charles Johnstone – Bass

Recorded at Gallo Studios

Engineer – Robin Ritchie

Cover Painting by Hargreaves Ntukwana

Produced by Lionel Pillay & Rashid Vally

Cat. No. SRK 786146

℗ 1979 As-Shams/The Sun

MOVEMENT IN THE CITY - Movement in the City

In the wake of a 2020 edition of Movement in the City's second album Black Teardrops (1981), Sharp-Flat Records returns with a prequel by way of a reissue of the band's self-titled debut from 1979.

As the 1970s were drawing to a close, the epic Black Disco studio project with its signature pairing of drum machine and organ had run its course. After delivering a killer trilogy of cosmic lounge outings dating back to 1975, the group yearned for funkier grooves and the core trio of composer Pops Mohamed on organ with Basil Coetzee on tenor sax and Sipho Gumede on bass decided to hire a drummer and rebrand as Movement in the City. In contrast with the New Age detachment of Black Disco, Movement in the City was conceptually grounded in the bleak social realism depicted on its photographic album covers and leaned into the vivid sensibilities of library music from the era. Blending Cape jazz with funk and soul, the group's output evokes a soundtrack for South African city life at the outset of the 1980s while nodding allegorically to the subterranean movements that were in the course of shaking the cage for political change.

With its cast of jazz fusion all-stars, Movement in the City is the manifesto of a band in transition - a bold and slick first offering that delivers a modern South African sound capable of both the funky exuberances of "Mister Lucky" as well as the down-home pathos of "Blue Sunday." Restored from its original tape masters and released in partnership with As-Shams Archive and Pops Mohamed, this rare artefact of South African jazz history is back in print for the very first time since its original 1979 release.

Organ, Electric Piano, Piano – Pops Mohamed

Saxophones – Basil Coetzee

Bass – Sipho Gumede

Drums – Gilbert Matthews

Bass on "Blue Sunday" – Peter Odendaal

Drums on "Blue Sunday" – Monty Weber

All Tracks Composed by Pops Mohamed

Produced by Rashid Vally

Cat. No. SRK 786147

℗ 1979 As-Shams/The Sun

DIGITAL SINGLE

LIONEL PILLAY feat. BASIL COETZEE - Shrimp Boats

Assembling unreleased recordings from 1979 and 1980, Shrimp Boats is a South African jazz archival compilation from 1987 built around its epic side-long title track featuring saxophonist Basil "Mannenberg" Coetzee. The recording was made during pianist Lionel Pillay's November 1979 session with Coetzee for the As-Shams/The Sun album Plum and Cherry. Side Two is composed of material recorded in September 1980 from the session for Lionel Pillay's Deeper in Black album. The 1951 pop standard "Shrimp Boats" was first given its unlikely jazz arrangement by Abdullah Ibrahim (recording as Dollar Brand) in 1971. Pillay and Coetzee take this seed of an arrangement to its furthest reaches with their mesmerising performance here. Although the title track casts a big shadow, Pillay's "Slow Blues for Orial" is a welcome original composition on the flip side that stands proudly next to a rare 1970s cover of Winston "Mankunku" Ngozi's "Yakhal 'Inkomo" (Pillay was the pianist on Mankunku's original 1968 recording) featuring saxophonists Barney Rachabane and Duke Makasi. The set closes with a nod to the contemporaneous jazz fusion scene with a take on Weather Report's "Birdland" from 1977.

Personnel on A1:

Lionel Pillay - Piano

Basil Coetzee - Tenor Sax

Stompie Manana - Trumpet

Charles Johnstone - Bass

Rod Clark - Drums

• Recorded 12 November 1979

Personnel on B1, B2, B3*:

Lionel Pillay - Piano

Barney Rachabane - Alto Sax

Duku Makasi - Tenor Sax

Sipho Gumede - Bass

Gilbert Mathews - Drums

• Recorded 29 September 1980

* Based on first-hand testimony provided to jazz journalist Gwen Ansell, Robbie Jansen plays alto sax on "Birdland" in place of Barney Rachabane. The uncredited guitarist on the track is possibly Russel Herman or Jethro Butow.

* Update: Robbie Jansen confirmed on alto sax on "Birdland" (taken from an unreleased session by Lionel Pillay dated 9 October 1981).

Produced and Compiled by Rashid Vally

Original Released in 1987 on the MANDLA imprint

Cat. No. MANDLA 001

UPDATE // TETE MBAMBISA - Did You Tell Your Mother

JUNE 2020: Revisiting archival recordings helps us collectively assemble, re-construct and write the story of South African jazz. It also provides a crucial opportunity to honour the elders of the jazz scene and acknowledge their profound contributions to shaping the genre in our country. Making all this possible is a small but dedicated music community that manifests these artefacts through passionate support. Thank you. We're delighted that Did You Tell Your Mother has reached many of you in lockdown but also a little heartbroken that this reissue has arrived at a time where we can't gather publicly to celebrate composer and pianist Tete Mbambisa in the manner he deserves. While we await a clear view to a Cape Town event, you can seek out a copy of this classic 1979 release on LP from SA record stores, CDs directly from Tete's management or DIGITAL ALBUM.

TETE MBAMBISA - Did You Tell Your Mother

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

Cat. No. SRK 786148

DIGITAL ALBUM

"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)