Johnny Dyani
Song For Biko

Afro-American music has always absorbed and reinterpreted the cultural influences of different hemispheres in relation to historical eras. While the first expressions of 'jazz music' come from the coagulation of Anglo-Saxon and European influences with those of Central Africa, the musical journey of this music passed through Caribbean, Brazilian, Latin American, European, Indian, and Eastern influences. This practice of fusion and contamination was in motion many decades before terms like 'ethnic' or 'globalization' became familiar.

Numerous examples: the Jungle Sound of Duke Ellington's orchestra in the '30s, the Manouche swing of the Hot Quintette du France, the Calypso of Sonny Rollins, the Firebird Suite of Parker quoting Stravinsky appreciated by the composer himself for his expertise, the bossa nova of Almeida, Bud Shank, and Stan Getz. Apart from the most pop-oriented trends, 'Jazz' has been identified as a musical approach regardless of the fashions of the moment, a style of interpretation and writing enriched by various influences, sounds, instruments, and expressive skills. One of the turning points exemplifying this play of reciprocal influences was the diaspora of African musicians to England in 1965, fourteen years before this recording. Among the protagonists were Chris McGregor and the Blue Notes (Dudu Pukwana, Nikele Moyake, Louis Moholo, Mongezi Feza, and the bassist Johnny Dyani; a white pianist and five colored musicians, all South Africans), interpreters of the popular musical form of the townships called "Kwela" born from the meeting of South African folk with the rhythms of North American jazz and blues and the then-emerging free jazz.

The Blue Notes arrived as exiles in England in search of a less oppressive environment where they could live by music and where it was allowed for black and white musicians to play in public and work steadily together without being treated as criminals under the violent repression of Apartheid. They brought a breath of energy, joy, and iconoclastic strength at a little-vibrant moment in the English music scene, needing new influences, to rid themselves of the U.S. musical icons of the time. They left an indelible influence on all future European jazz.

Johnny Dyani brought remarkable instrumental skills to the Blue Notes, an original approach, bold, rhythmic, and free to the instrument and the ability to combine in his compositions joyful, rhythmic, and scorching, extroverted musical climates with a solid rhythmic layout and communicative strength, between high-school African rhythms and blues jazz. Song For Biko is the quintessence of this. In the most spontaneous and rich mixing of popular cultures from the north and south of the world to give birth to something new, it is the unique result of a day of recording that Dyani wanted to dedicate to the martyr of Apartheid Steve Biko. The founder of the South African Black Consciousness Movement died nine months before the recording due to the violence he suffered in prison (the same man to whom Peter Gabriel would dedicate the homonymous track in 1980 and R. Attenborough the film Cry Freedom with Denzel Washington in 1987).

In the Danish studios of Steeplechase for producer Nils Winther Dyani and two other South American musicians, the former Blue Note Dudu Pukwana on alto sax and drummer Makaya Ntshoko join trumpeter Don Cherry for four tracks (a fifth was commendably recovered and appears on this 1987 CD edition). These were years when music, especially at these levels, still made you 'feel' something profound in its assumptions, the musicians' desire to play and be together, a communication of something deeply felt (the celebration of a martyr, outraged, joyful, and at the same time deeply melancholic) in a unity of intentions capable of moving and leading to 'classic' results like this.

The presence of a ‘star’ like Cherry rather than being a more guest group or a promotional appearance as one might expect if at all possible amplifies the enthusiasm and joy of playing and communicating of the South African musicians; joy, composed melancholy, anger, and emotion dedicated to Steve Biko that the trumpeter knows how to make his own and reciprocates by leaving us one of his most lyrical and convincing performances outside Ornette Coleman's group (whose music is one of Dyani's many references).

If you want to start a listening journey of Afro-American music in its phase of overcoming U.S. orthodoxy, this recording and these musicians offer a music of timeless originality, to listen to and assimilate.