Blue Notes for Mongezi

Blue Notes for Mongezi is an album by The Blue Notes, featuring saxophonist Dudu Pukwana, pianist Chris McGregor, bassist Johnny Dyani, and drummer Louis Moholo. It was recorded on December 23, 1975, in a rehearsal room in London, and was released on vinyl as a double album in 1976 by Ogun Records. In 2022, Ogun reissued the album in expanded form as a double-CD set, using tracks that originally appeared on the 2008 compilation The Ogun Collection.[1][2][3][4]

Blue Notes for Mongezi
Studio album by
The Blue Notes
Released1976
RecordedDecember 23, 1975
StudioA rehearsal room in London
GenreFree jazz
LabelOgun
OGD 001/002
OGCD 025-026
ProducerChris McGregor, Keith Beal
The Blue Notes chronology
Blue Notes for Mongezi
(1976)		 Blue Notes in Concert Volume 1
(1978)

The album is dedicated to the memory of trumpeter, Blue Notes member, and "brother in music" Mongezi Feza, who died at age 30 on December 14, 1975, roughly a week prior to the recording session. In his liner notes, Keith Beal described the recording as "the spontaneous tribute of four musicians who had assembled in London for the memorial service to their friend," (the members of the group had scattered in the late 1960s) and wrote: "No discussion took place beforehand and nothing was said during the session, save through the music."[5][6]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz[7]

In a review for All About Jazz, Chris May stated that the music "transcends the recording's technical limitations and is profoundly moving." He commented: "A true Afrikan wake, an act of collective catharsis, Blue Notes for Mongezi is not an easy listen. But it will reward the close attention of those who loved the Blue Notes and their music."[8]

South African writer A.K. Thembeka, author of the novel Laduma, wrote: "This is a musical document which grinds out the sorrow and incomprehension at the death of a young loved one so uncompromisingly one is left convinced that these men will love each other and play together in the better world that they have all gone to so painfully early."[9]

Jazz Journal's Barry Witherden remarked: "this session shows this tightly knit group at its best, portraying its work perhaps more comprehensively, passionately and authentically than any of their other recordings."[10]

In a JazzTimes tribute to Feza, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum called the album "an incredibly powerful and heartfelt musical farewell to a fallen brother."[11]

Bill Shoemaker of Point of Departure described the album as the group's "Guernica, a panoramic depiction of their world torn asunder," stating that it "stormed far beyond the parameters of eulogy and Westernized ideals of ritual," with the musicians "veer[ing] between chants and grooves, kwela and free jazz, and spirit-summoning rubato crescendos and existential screams."[6]

JazzWord's Ken Waxman wrote: "the four go through the equivalent of stream-of-consciousness playing, moving from theme to theme, melody to melody and phrase to phrase. Into the mix they toss everything from suggestions of Church of England hymns, kwela dance rhythms, refined, Ellington-reflecting tone poems – heavy on piano chording – and out-and-out primitivist R&B."[12]

Writing for Itineraries of a Hummingbird, Jason Weiss commented: "Totally spontaneous, the musicians just played, washing through them entire lifetimes of music and emotion. Often singing or chanting, fiercely melodic, even a little raw, their tunes take on the aspect of praise songs."[13]

In an article for London Jazz News, Jon Turney noted that the album is "both celebration and lament, ringing with shouts of pain and cries of resistance. Impossible to hear it without thinking of the political horrors the group had left behind, or marvelling at their ability to sound exultant in spite of everything."[14]

Track listings

Original LP
Disc 1
  1. "Blue Notes for Mongezi: First Movement" – 22:35
  2. "Blue Notes for Mongezi: Second Movement" – 19:50
Disc 2
  1. "Blue Notes for Mongezi: Third Movement" – 19:20
  2. "Blue Notes for Mongezi: Fourth Movement" – 23:30

CD reissue
Disc 1
  1. "Blue Notes for Mongezi: First Movement" – 42:14
  2. "Blue Notes for Mongezi: Second Movement" – 36:31
Disc 2
  1. "Blue Notes for Mongezi: Third Movement" – 41:07
  2. "Blue Notes for Mongezi: Fourth Movement" – 37:11

Personnel

References
  1. "The Blue Notes: Blue Notes for Mongezi". AllMusic. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  2. "The Blue Notes - Blue Notes for Mongezi". Jazz Music Archives. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  3. "The Blue Notes - Blue Notes for Mongezi". Ogun Records. 13 May 2021. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  4. "Ogun Records discography". JazzLists. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  5. Beal, Keith (1976). Blue Notes for Mongezi (liner notes). The Blue Notes. Ogun Records. OGD 001/002.
  6. Shoemaker, Bill (October 2008). "Moment's Notice: Recent CDs Briefly Reviewed". Point of Departure. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  7. Larkin, Colin, ed. (1999). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz. Virgin Books. p. 702.
  8. May, Chris (May 26, 2022). "The Blue Notes: Refugees From Race Hate". All About Jazz. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  9. Thembeka, A.K. (2004). Laduma. Pine Slopes Publications. p. 130. ISBN 9780958475587 – via Google Books.
  10. Witherden, Barry (June 22, 2022). "Dudu Pukwana, Chris McGregor, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Johnny Dyani: Blue Notes For Mongezi". Jazz Journal. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  11. Bynum, Taylor Ho (October 18, 2014). "Taylor Ho Bynum on Mongezi Feza and Barbara Donald". JazzTimes. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  12. Waxman, Ken (July 8, 2009). "The Blue Notes". JazzWord. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  13. Weiss, Jason (Spring 2009). "Blue Notes, The Ogun Collection". Itineraries of a Hummingbird. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  14. Turney, Jon (May 19, 2022). "Ogun 'Blue Notes reissue series 2022'". London Jazz News. Retrieved May 18, 2023.
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