One year before Live in South Africa 1964, Chris McGregor recorded Jazz: The African Sound as Chris McGregor and the Castle Lager Big Band. With original material from Kippie Moeketsi, Dollar Brand and McGregor himself, this album – albeit extremely rare – and Live in South Africa 1964 by the Blue Notes, recorded in Durban, are superb examples of the remarkable creativity of pianist Chris McGregor brought to South African jazz at the height of the oppressive Apartheid regime.

The music is simultaneously dangerous and exciting – music on the edge that’s breathlessly compelling. As far as is known, the latter album, in surprisingly good fidelity, was McGregor’s last recording in South Africa, made during a tour before most of the band left to play the Juan-Les Pins Jazz Festival. Apartheid had made it increasingly difficult to ply their craft in their homeland and the band seized the opportunity to settle in Europe. Initially, the group went their separate ways, but assembled in London in 1965 where they built a following for their music, initially at Ronnie’s Old Place. Blue Notes In Concert, recorded live at the 100 Club in 1977, and although a quartet of its surviving founding members, does not slacken in intensity, largely down to Moholo’s drumming and Puckwana’s force-of-nature playing. Although they had more fully embraced the Freedom Principal by now, their repertoire was wide ranging, from pieces such as ‘Funky Boots’ to traditional African melodies such as ‘Abalimanga’. Blue Notes for Mongezi, is a spontaneously conceived celebration of the life Mongezi Feza, the band’s highly respected trumpeter whose death nine days before, on 14 December 1975, had earlier in the day been marked with a memorial service. Heartfelt, this is profound stuff: imperious, majestic, yes, but also earthy and powerful. Blue Notes For Johnny is a trio album celebrating bassist Johnny Mizo Dyani who died in 1966. Recorded in 1968, it strains hard as Dyani’s loss – he was the glue that held this band together – becomes clear here.