[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFgJ0GZ0CrY” /]

Jim Peterson, alto sax
Rolf Johnson, trumpet and piano
Scott Foster, guitar
Dennis Criteser, bass
Dan Foltz, drums

Five San Francisco players celebrate the points of musical contact they’ve had with the township jazz of South Africa.  South African jazz, also called Township Jive and Kwela Jazz, is world renowned in large part due to the recognition granted outside the continent to the work of Abdullah Ibrahim, Johnny Dyani and Dudu Pukwana, Hugh Masakala, Miriam Mekaba and many others. Kwela itself is named after the guitarist Allen Kwela, born in Natal province, who moved to Johannesburg in the early 1950s and influenced a generation and more! check this link!

The Blue Notes: Chris McGregor on piano, Mongezi Feza on trumpet, Dudu Pukwana on alto saxophone, Nikele Moyake on tenor saxophone, Johnny Dyani on bass, and Louis Moholo-Moholo on drums

Allen Kwela

Kwela fuses folk music of the townships with American jazz.

Dennis Criteser, Rolf Johnson and Jim Peterson, along with drummer Andrew Scott, dug into this music in San Francisco back in the day, performing as Kombo Kwela, named for that pennywhistle-based skiffle style from South Africa that cut a worldwide swath.