{"id":147669,"date":"2019-10-14T14:48:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T12:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/what-lost-photos-of-blue-notes-say-about-south-africas-jazz-history-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2019-10-14T14:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T12:48:00","slug":"what-lost-photos-of-blue-notes-say-about-south-africas-jazz-history-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/what-lost-photos-of-blue-notes-say-about-south-africas-jazz-history-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"What lost photos of Blue Notes say about South Africa’s jazz history | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

What lost photos of Blue Notes say about South Africa’s jazz history<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Mongezi Feza on trumpet at the concert in 1964 that is the source of the rare new photos of The Blue Notes<\/span> Norman Owen-Smith<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1964 a young South African student and photography enthusiast, Norman Owen-Smith, took his Leica camera along to a jazz concert at the then University of Natal Pietermaritzburg\u2019s Great Hall and captured a series of black and white images of the band, the Blue Notes.<\/p>\n

Through the intervention of jazz scholars, these photos have been printed, restored and exhibited, years after the band became iconic.<\/p>\n

The story of the Blue Notes is inextricable from apartheid\u2019s exiling of the musical \u2013 specifically jazz \u2013 imagination. Owen-Smith\u2019s photos are a rare and unexpected contribution to a hungry archive for jazz lovers all over the world.<\/p>\n

The Blue Notes embody the beauty of South African jazz in the 1960s, and the dynamics of its struggles during and against apartheid. The ensemble began in 1959 after a meeting between two of South Africa\u2019s most revered jazz artists, both of whom died in exile. One was pianist and alto saxophonist Mtutuzeli \u2018Dudu\u2019 Pukwana, the other pianist Chris McGregor. By 1964 the other four members were cemented: Louis Moholo-Moholo on drums \u2013 the only surviving member \u2013 and Nikele \u2018Nick\u2019 Moyake on tenor saxophone, Mongezi Feza on trumpet and Johnny Mbizo Dyani on double bass.<\/p>\n

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The Blue Notes in full swing in Pietermaritzburg on the eve of them leaving the country.<\/span> Norman Owen-Smith<\/span><\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Owen-Smith\u2019s joyful, simple photographs allow the ordinary to be extraordinary, showing musical fraternity, passionate performance and a racially mixed band at the height of apartheid, after the clampdown that followed the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. They capture a moment in the band\u2019s history when they were still young \u2013 in their teens and twenties \u2013 and just before they went into exile.<\/p>\n

They are a notable addition to a very thin archive. It includes an excerpt from a documentary on jazz in Britain that shows a snippet of the Blue Notes\u2019 performance at the 1964 Antibes Jazz Festival, posted on YouTube by McGregor\u2019s younger brother. The archival footage is owned by French TV, but even scholars of South African jazz based in France have not been able to find it. <\/p>\n