One More Piece?… Yes! MRA

In the early seventies Chris McGregor and the members of his Blue Notes – who had fled the apartheid regime of their native South Africa, where a racially mixed band was unwelcome – had settled in London.

That’s where the piano player recruited some of the best local musicians to bring his sextet to the size of a big band.

This track is not only typical of the African side of the Brotherhood of Breath, it’s also a great arrangement where each section enters after another in turn, and comes back again to build a gorgeous tapestry of melodic and rhythmic layers.

So much so that nobody ever has the idea to even take the slightest solo. Collective work at its best!

Please listen to it here:

… and/or all the week from June 26th to July 2nd 2023 at 06:00am & at 08:00pm (Paris time) on Couleurs Jazz Radio.

Musicians :

Chris McGregor : piano

Malcolm Griffiths, Nick Evans : trombone

Mongezi Feza, Harry Beckett : trumpet

Mark Charig : cornet

Dudu Pukwana : alto sax & compositions

Mike Osborne : alto sax

Ronnie Beer : tenor sax

Alan Skidmore : tenor & soprano sax

John Surman : baritone & soprano sax

Harry Miller : bass

Louis Moholo : drums

Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath was released in 1971 by the label Akarma.