blue notes: blue notes for johnny

OTOROKU present the first vinyl reissue of Blue Notes for Johnny, a defining statement by one of the greatest ensembles in the history of jazz. Recorded in mid-1987 by Blue Notes -- then reduced to the trio of Dudu Pukwana on alto sax, Louis Moholo-Moholo on drums, and Chris McGregor on piano -- it encounters the band 25 years after their founding embarking on an inward meditation through collective music making dedicated to Johnny Dyani, their former bandmate and friend. Blue Notes were founded in Cape Town in 1962, and stand among the most important ensembles in the history of jazz. Artistically brilliant and groundbreaking, they were also the first widely visible multiracial band in South Africa. As a mixed-race band under apartheid, this group of friends and like-minded artists -- Chris McGregor, Mongezi Feza, Dudu Pukwana, Nikele Moyake, Johnny Dyani, and Louis Moholo-Moholo -- existed within a context that viewed their mere existence as a dangerous and subversive act. Following the untimely passing of Johnny Dyani in late 1986, the last three members of the original line-up -- McGregor, Pukwana and Moholo-Moholo -- reformed to pay tribute to yet another of their fallen brothers. Blue Notes for Johnny, the group's second musical memorial to a band member, incorporates a considerably broader range of touchstone and practices than its predecessor, nodding toward the band's foundations in be-bop and post-bop without abandoning where they had journeyed along the way. Internalizing equal elements of hard-bop, modalism, and free improvisation, it is a startling creative statement, imbued with a tension that renders an equally radical and sophisticated challenge; a furious tide -- slow in pace and it slow to reveal itself -- masquerading in gentler forms. Both Dudu Pukwana and Chris McGregor would pass away three years later in 1990, leaving Moholo-Moholo -- who continues to carve a groundbreaking trajectory across the world of jazz -- as the last surviving member. Transferred from the original masters and featuring an exact reproduction of the original artwork. Remastered by Giuseppe Ilelasi.