Label: Jamal

Reissued 2008, Originally released 1969

Intense whispered chanting drifts towards a solid groove of hand percussion and guitar. It locks in with a mesmerizing beat for a few bars, when suddenly there is an explosion of joyful noise. A galloping herd of musical ponies make a mad dash for the cool stream of hot jazz that comes from Jonas Gwangwa’s trombone. His sound is as rich with the history of his native Johannesburg as it is with American jazz and soul. He came up playing in South Africa with Hugh Masekela and Dollar Brand. His confident and easy style helped him land a gig as arranger for Harry Belafonte in the mid-’60s, which led him to work with Miriam Makeba on the first big African soul crossover hit, “Pata Pata.” Gwangwa was in full stride by the time he hooked up with Ahmad Jamal, who issued Who (Ngubani)? on his personal label and coproduced it with James Shaw. The world was open to grooving with the African Explosion, a dashiki-powered supergroup that included the top South African saxophonist, Dudu Pukwana, and former Velvettes lead singer, Mamsie. Jonas touched off the big bang with a powder keg full of smoking tunes.

Track listing:

1. Chant (Senyamo)
   
2. Switch 2
   
3. Kwatula
   
4. Who (Ngubani) ?
   
5. African Sausage
   
6. Dark City
   
7. Switch 1
   
8. Szaba Szaba
   
9. Benkeleni (Vocal)
   
10. Benkeleni (Instrumental)
    
11. Kukude (It's Far Away)