Brotherhood of Breath is a very different kind of big band from Charles Tolliver's, emerging as it does from the mixed parentage of South African townships music, 1960s free-jazz and the tone-poetry of Duke Ellington. This is the band's first album, made in 1971 by pianist Chris McGregor and his London-based South African exiles, along with then-newcomers to the UK scene such as young saxophonists John Surman and Mike Osborne.
Brotherhood of Breath was a groundbreaking band, so this (and its follow-up, Brotherhood, also reissued by enterprising jazz/folk archive label Fledg'ling,) are long-overdue restorations to the catalogues. The chanting horn polyphony of Mra, the searing tenderness of Davashe's Dream, Mongezi Feza's skittering atonal trumpet solo over the smooth swing of Andromeda, and the tongue-in-cheek oompah music of Union Special all recall a rough-hewn but dazzling band, decimated much too early by grim reapings. - John Fordham
Reissued by Fledg'ling in 2007, this is a classic title from 1971 by Chris McGregor's magnificent big band -- Brotherhood Of Breath. Arguably one of the most influential albums to emerge from the London jazz scene of the early 1970s, the Brotherhood of Breath was an exuberant big-band created by South African-born pianist and composer, Chris McGregor. In South Africa, McGregor had formed the racially mixed Blue Notes in the early 1960s. By 1964, finding it very difficult to work at home, they left for Europe, finally settling in London in 1966. The Blue Notes -- Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana, Mongezi Feza, Johnny Dyani and Louis Moholo -- made a huge impact on London's jazz scene and befriended many in London's emerging avant-garde jazz community. The Brotherhood Of Breath was essentially the expatriate Blue Notes augmented by a large number of their friends from the British jazz community. The ensemble played an energetic mixture of Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Sun Ra, but retained a unique feel due to the South African influences and the intelligent arrangements. McGregor dreamed of keeping the band together "not as an institution, but as a community." Unfortunately, the economics of touring with such a large ensemble made that impossible. The group with a varying line-up continued to perform and record sporadically until McGregor's untimely death in May 1990.
Tracks
1. MRA (Pukwana)
2. Davashe's Dream (Davashe)
3. The Bride (Pukwana)
4. Andromeda (McGregor)
5. Night Poem (McGregor)
6. Union Special (McGregor)
CHRIS McGREGOR piano, African xylophone
MALCOLM GRIFFITHS trombone
NICK EVANS trombone
MONGEZI FEZA pocket trumpet, indian flute
MARK CHARIG cornet
HARRY BECKETT trumpet
DUDU PUKWANA alto saxophone
RONNIE BEER tenor saxophone, Indian flute
ALAN SKIDMORE tenor and soprano saxophone
HARRY MILLER bass
LOUIS MOHOLO drums, percussion
MIKE OSBORNE alto saxophone, clarinet
JOHN SURMAN baritone and soprano saxophone
Neon (RCA) - NE 2
Fledg'ling Records FLED 3062CD / Repertoire 4468 / Akarma 00016298. /. Disk Union 7225